New library site to be built
Plans are underway to modernize and refurbish the New Bodleian Library in a £50m proposition to induct it into the 21st century. The idea is to make the building much more accessible to the public and readers in contrast to its current daunting, 'fortress-like' image. The library will act as a public face for all Oxford's libraries and be transformed into a major research facility for scholars.
Oxford University Library Services has asked architects Wilkinson Eyre to produce plans for the revamp of the building including creation of a new public square, an exhibition space and a cafe_ on the ground floor. This meeting space is to be used for seminars, readings and events relevant to the library, its collection and the University's academic and community mission.
These are to be made accessible from a new entrance on Broad Street that will cause the 'eyes of the building to be opened to the City.' Says Tom Welsh from Queen's College, 'I am not impressed with the cafe_ idea! Oxford University isn't a business and in case they hadn't noticed, there is no lack of cafe_s in the area around the Bod anyway.' In future, the Bodleian will function as a Special Collections library, rather than a bookstore with attached reading rooms.
The archival material and special collections of the library are vast, diverse and rare, the second greatest such collection in the UK. The requirement to make these special collections more public and available is to sustain and attract funding and future deposit of collections. The new reading rooms are to include cutting-edge technology and be much better designed to browse the library with ease.
A 1st year at University College says 'It would be nice to have a cafe_ to take a break in and the changes would be positive in the long term, but I hope that in modernizing the Bod, it does not lose its old charm.' Another undergraduate student at University College raises a different worry. 'I question the amount of disruption that would occur during the building work.
Would library access be limited in this period?' Meanwhile, millions of valuable books from general collections are to be safely stored in a flood-resistant book depository near the Thames. The depository is said to hold nearly 7.8 million books, allowing the the biggest expansion and refurbishment that the Bodleian has seen in its 400-year history. Work on the library is expected to begin in 2009 with the building being re-opened fully in 2013.
19th Apr 2007