The Bodleian Libraries are a collection of 28 libraries that serve the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in England, including the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

itself, as well as many other (but not all) central and faculty libraries. As of the 2021–2022 report year, the libraries collectively hold 13.5 million printed items, as well as numerous other objects and artefacts. A major product of this collaboration has been a joint

integrated library system An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS), is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed. An ILS is usually ...

OLIS OLiS (Oficjalna Lista Sprzedaży; ) is the official chart of the 100 highest selling music albums in Poland. The chart exists since 23 October 2000 and is provided by ZPAV. Until January 2023 the chart consisted of 50 albums, based only on physica ...

(Oxford Libraries Information System), and its public interface, SOLO (Search Oxford Libraries Online), which provides a

union catalog A union catalog is a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including book format, microform, cards and more recently, networked electronic databases. Pri ...

ue covering all member libraries, as well as the libraries of individual colleges and other faculty libraries, which are not members of the group but do share

cataloguing In library and information science, cataloging ( US) or cataloguing ( UK) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging provides information such as aut ...

information. One of its busiest libraries is the Social Science Library, which, at its peak, serves 7,500 visitors in a period of approximately nine weeks.

History

Founded in February 2000 as Oxford University Library Services (OULS), the organisation was renamed on 2 March 2010. As of the 2021–2022 report year, the group cares for 13.5 million printed items, of archives and manuscripts, and a staff of 541 (

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...

s). It is the second largest library in the UK (behind the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

). The continued growth of the library has resulted in a severe shortage of storage space. More than 1.5 million items are stored outside Oxford. Locations formerly used included a redundant village church at

Nuneham Courtenay Nuneham Courtenay is a village and civil parish about SSE of Oxford. It occupies several miles close to the east bank of the River Thames. Geography The parish is bounded to the west by the River Thames and on other sides by field boundaries. ...

and a disused

salt mine Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite formations. History Before the advent of the modern internal combustio ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. In 2007 and 2008, in an effort to obtain better and more capacious storage facilities for the library's collections, Oxford University Library Services (OULS) tried to obtain planning permission to build a new book depository on the Osney Mead site, to the southwest of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

city centre. However, this application was unsuccessful and the new Book Storage Facility was instead constructed at a site on

South Marston South Marston is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The village is about north-east of Swindon town centre. History The earliest documentary evidence for continuous settlement dates from the 13th centur ...

Industrial Estate on the outskirts of

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

. This Book Storage Facility, which cost £26 million, opened in October 2010 and has 153 miles (246 kilometres) of shelving, including 3,224 bays with 95,000 shelf levels, and 600 map cabinets to hold 1.2 million maps and other items. Previously-existing Osney Mead premises are used for backroom operations, including the Packing and Design Service department.

Structure

The Bodleian Libraries group includes centralised departments: * Academic and Learning Services (ALS) * Scholarly Resources, which includes Bodleian Digital Library Systems and Services (BDLSS), Collections Management (Collections & Resource Description and Storage & Logistics) * Communications * Conservation and Collection Care The current Director of the Libraries

Richard Ovenden Richard Ovenden FRHistS (; born 25 March 1964) is a British librarian and author. He currently serves as the 25th Bodley's Librarian in the University of Oxford, having been appointed in 2014. He is also the current head of the University of Ox ...

, like his predecessors Sarah Thomas and founding director Reginald Carr, holds the position concurrently with that of

Bodley's Librarian The head of the Bodleian Library, the main library at the University of Oxford, is known as Bodley's Librarian: Sir Thomas Bodley, as founder, gave his name to both the institution and the position. Although there had been a university library a ...

since 2014. Senior administrative staff are based in the

Clarendon Building The Clarendon Building is an early 18th-century Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building of the University of Oxford. It is in Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street, Oxford, England, next to the Bodleian Library and the Sheldonian Theatre an ...

on the central Bodleian estate.

Libraries

As of August 2023, the website of the group lists the following member libraries: *

Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library The Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library (‘Bodleian Art Library’ in its shortened form, formerly the Sackler Library) holds a large portion of the classical, art historical, and archaeological works belonging to the Universi ...

* Bodleian KB Chen China Centre Library * Bodleian Education Library * Bodleian Health Care Libraries (Cairns Library at

John Radcliffe Hospital John Radcliffe Hospital (informally known as the JR or the John Radcliffe) is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England. It forms part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is named after John Radcliffe (physician) ...

, Knowledge Centre at Old Road, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Horton Library at

Horton General Hospital The Horton General Hospital is a National Health Service hospital located on the Oxford Road, in the Calthorpe ward of Banbury. It is managed by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History Pre-1948 The earliest part of the hospit ...

Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...

) * Bodleian History Faculty Library, in

Radcliffe Camera The Radcliffe Camera (colloquially known as the "Rad Cam" or "The Camera"; from Latin , meaning 'room') is a building of the University of Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in a Baroque style and built in 1737–49 to house the Radclif ...

* Bodleian Japanese Library * Bodleian Latin American Centre Library *

Bodleian Law Library The Bodleian Law Library (BLL) is an academic library in Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford University, the Bodleian Library, Bodleian Libraries and is also the library of the Faculty of Law. It is situated in part of the listed building, ...

(Old Library,

Weston Library The Weston Library is part of the Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, reopened within the former New Bodleian Library building on the corner of Broad Street and Parks Road in central Oxford, England. Hi ...

) * Bodleian Music Faculty Library * Bodleian Social Science Library * English Faculty Library * Leopold Muller Memorial Library (Jewish studies) * Nizami Ganjavi Library * Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library, in former

Radcliffe Infirmary The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street. Closed in 2007, after refurbishment the building was re-opened in October ...

building *

Radcliffe Science Library The Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) is the main teaching and research science library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Being officially part of the Bodleian Libraries, the library holds the Legal Deposit material for the sciences a ...

(including the Alexander Library of Ornithology) * Rewley House Continuing Education Library * Sainsbury Library at the

Saïd Business School Saïd Business School (Oxford Saïd or SBS) is the business school of the University of Oxford. The school is a provider of management education. Business and management classes started at Oxford in 1965 when the Centre of Management Studies, ...

* Sherardian Library of

Plant Taxonomy Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things). Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...

Taylor Institution The Taylor Institution (commonly known as the Taylorian) is the Oxford University library dedicated to the study of the languages of Europe. Its building also includes lecture rooms used by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Unive ...

Library (medieval, Slavonic and modern languages) * Vere Harmsworth Library at the Rothermere American Institute A further 40 college libraries and 20 faculty and speciality libraries are not members of the group.

References

{{Authority control 2000 establishments in England Organizations established in 2000 *Bodleian Libraries Research libraries in the United Kingdom *Bodleian Libraries

History

Structure

Libraries

See also

References