Tour of the Bod

I'm going to start off with a confession.  During the three years of my degree studying PPE, I never visited the Bodleian Library once.  Nor did I ever go inside the Radcliffe Camera.  This is not something I have told Sarah Thomas, Head of the Bodleian Library, since I've taken up my post, and it has been rectified over the past few months and dramatically yesterday (more on that in a second).

Why did I never visit the Bod?  Two reasons.  The first is that between the Social Sciences Library and Merton College library, I always had access to the books I needed.  I never needed to go into the Rad Cam or the PPE Reading Room, and I was quite happy working in my room, or at my spot in OWL Library at Merton (where I left a little placque commemerating the seats importance, which has reportedly survived the summer cleaning*).  The second reason, embarrasingly, was that I was scared to admit I didn't know what to do or where any of the books were.  I had never received a tour, or instructions how to stack request anything to the Rad Cam, and was too proud to ask.  So until this summer, unlike thousands upon thousands of other students, tutors and visitors, I had avoided stepping foot into the magnificent buildings off Broad Street.

Yesterday, along with some other OUSU Sabs and Common Room Presidents, I was treated to a behind the scenes tour.  We saw some fascinating things: the Gladstone bookshelves, designed by the Prime Minister to reduce the amount of space needed to browse books, and still in use today.  The conveyor belt running under Broad Street from the New to the Old Bod.  Built 70 years ago, it has needed one major service since then, and has a very basic programming system for delivering books to the right location that makes it one of the earliest computers.  I missed it on my tour, but hear that some students were shown the original letters that became the Wind in the Willows.  Shakespeare's first portfolio, the five copies of the Magna Carta the Bod owns, and other priceless treasures were hidden away safely.  I didn't count them all, but there were almost a million books under the Rad Cam, and a further four or five million in the New Bod.

And here is the crux of the problem, and the point of yesterday's tour.  The Bod has run out of space.  It receives 5000 items a week, which works out at 3 miles of shelving space a year.  With no where for it to be stored, the University is currently renting space in abandoned salt mines in Cheshire at the cost of £300,000+ a year.  The reason why it can take up to 3 days to stack request a book is they have to go up to the mines to find it.  The books still in the Bod are not stored safely, and God forbid it ever happens, but a fire on the bottom floor of the New Bod would rip through the building, destroying millions of books dating back hundreds of years (we were assured  that the really priceless stuff is in a fireproof safe).  With much of the books underground, the Bod is also relying (and has successfully been relying for many years) on an elaborate membrame and pumping system that keeps water away.

Something needs to be done, and needs to be done urgently.  There is a solution as well, and a very good solution at that.  On a site just outside of Oxford, the University is waiting for planning permission to build a depository.  It will be a huge warehouse, with capacity for around 8m volumes, all collected by robots.  The depository will be able to store the millions of books efficiently, close to Oxford reducing stack requests to an average of three hours, and in an environment that will preserve the books for hundreds of years to come.  It will be protected from flooding so that it can survive a one in five thousand year flood, even assuming global warming.  To put this in perspective, this summer's floods wouldn't have reached the floor level of the building (and contrary to some rumours, the proposed site did not flood this summer).   A flood of that magnitude would leave the whole of Oxford under water, London under-the-sea rather than upon-the-Thames and the depository as the only place of safety.  If you see a flood coming, head for this Depository because the books are going to be safer than we are.

So why hasn't it been built already?  There have been objections to the effect on the skyline and views of our dreaming spires.  The exhibition in the entrance to Divinity Schools has a number of photos which show a before and (digitally altered) after shot.  I was never much good at Where's Wally, and these photos help by giving a big sign about where it would be.  But I still can't see its effect on the view, and our spires look like they'll remain as dreamy as ever.

Action on this depository is urgent and vital.  The University is on a written warning from the National Archives to make dramatic improvements, or lose its status to recieve special collections.  Our worldwide academic leadership is at threat, because without these collections, and with the current levels of service, professors, researchers and students will go elsewhere.  A motion is being brought to the 5th week OUSU Council offering the student bodies full support for the depository, as a vital resource for our overall educational experience.  I hope you will encourage your Common Room President to back the motion.  I hope you will also consider getting in touch with your City Councillors and letting them know your thoughts on the depository.  The Libraries are central to the success of our University, and they are in need of our support.   We should put down our books, and start doing what we can.

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* If anyone in Merton Development Office is reading this blog, the size of any donation I make to the library in years to come will be related to the amount of time this placque survives.