The Bodleian at Oxford

Today we went to Oxford and toured the Bodleian Library; in addition to containing some amazingly rare items (including an Egyptian papyrus from 965 BC!), and now being somewhat well known as set for the Harry Potter movies, it is a working academic library. It was really jarring to see corkboards with the exact same fliers for stress management sessions, apartment rentals, and upcoming concerts that you would see at any college hanging in the 400 year old stairwells of the magnificent building. But, in a way, since I work at an academic library, it did also make me feel at home, as did the more or less ordered chaos behind the scenes when we went through the tunnel under the library where a lot of the books are stored.

One thing that amazed me was the Bodleian's system for getting books out of underground storage and up to readers. Put in during the 1930's, there is a system of continuously running machinery that delivers boxes containing books to particular rooms throughout the library. Up until a couple of years ago, requests were made by dropping notes in containers through vacuum tubes. Now it's by computer. The whole system reminded me a little of the University of California's Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF); a storage facility for library materials across the campuses, but the Bodleian's system pre-dates SRLF by about 50 years.

While there is a fairly complex admissions policy to be a reader there, non-Oxford users are eligible to be readers and use the materials, though most non-Oxford users have to pay a fee. And everyone has to take the oath, started by Thomas Bodley himself, not to damage the materials or bring fire into the library before they can use the materials. I'm not sure how patron oaths would fly back home, but since the Bodleian credits it to some degree for a relatively low level of damage and loss it's kind of tempting. You have to use the materials in the library itself, as well; they are not allowed to leave with readers. Like the British Library, they are serious about the rules--if King Charles I had to come into the library and take the oath to use the books he wanted, no one is getting out of the requirements.