The Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford Ned Irwin One of the world's great academic libraries, the Bodleian is both a unique institution (in its contents and arrangement) and one familiar with the problems affecting all modern academic libraries. It finds itself blessed by its past, being rich in collections of rare books, illuminated manuscripts, and personal papers. Yet it is burdened by this tradition when forced to remain a 100 percent retention library in a rapidly expanding information society or a nonlending facil­ ity as information collectors grow more interdependent. Like all libraries, the Bodleian is com­ ing to grips with the twenty-first century. xford is a city of libraries. One annual operating budget is currently £5.5 may think of spires in morning million ($8.8 million). In the most recent mists at mention of its name, fiscal year figures this included as follows: but its libraries are less ephem­ salaries, £3.5 million ($5.6 million); books eral and of greater value. There are some and periodicals £1.3 million ($2 million) 100 libraries associated with the university (excluding those materials received free town, and its greatest bibliographic trea­ under copyright privilege); and conserva­ sure is the Bodleian Library. tion, £100,000 ($160,000). The library recently completed the cele­ In addition to being a copyright library, bration of its SOOth anniversary: Duke the Bodleian has two other distinctive fea­ Humfrey Library was completed in 1488. 1 tures that differ from the typical university The library has grown in proportion to its library. It is a nonlending library, and it is age since its refounding in 1602 by Sir a 100 percent retention facility. Both as­ Thomas Bodley (for whom it is named). pects have historical examples. Today it has a staff of 370 (with approxi­ During the English Civil War, Charles I mately 84 professional librarians) and ex­ (making Oxford his seat of government) tends into at least seven buildings from its requested to have a book brought from the original space in Duke Humfrey. It houses Bodleian to him. The request was refused over 5.1 million volumes, 136,000 manu­ by Bodley's librarian. No action was taken script volumes, over 5,000 incunabula, against the librarian. Sometime later, 994,000 maps, 252,000 microforms, and showing complete political impartiality 50,000 current serial titles. 2 and independence, the librarian also The Bodleian has been a copyright li­ refused a request to lend a book to Oliver brary in Britain since 1610.1t thus receives Cromwell.6 a copy of every book published in the The idea that the Bodleian should throw United Kingdom. 3 The collection grows at nothing away once it enters the library a rate of 1.5 miles of shelving a year! The was learned the hard way. A librarian re- Ned Irwin is Special Collections Librarian/Archivist at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Li­ brary, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402. The author wishes to express his appreciation to the following Bodleian staff for their assistance in his research . at Oxford: David Vaisey, W. H. Clennell, Alan Bell, Richard Bell, Mary Clapinson, Allan Lodge, Charles Mould, Adrian Roberts, Julian Roberts, Stephen Tomlinson, Michael Turner, and Peter Warren. 100 Bodleian Library 101 ceiving the second Shakespeare folio and alogs. In another major move to improve believing it a revised, improved version of library serVices, a department of reader's the first threw out the first folio of Shake­ services was created in 1988 with Richard speare, which the Bodleian had pur­ Bell as its head. chased new. 7 Bodley's Librarian sees several prob­ lems to be faced in the near future:9 ORGANIZATION AND COLLECTIONS 1. Because the library is housed in sev­ Because the Bodleian serves as the cen­ eral buildings, a large staff (with the at­ tral library of the University of Oxford, the tendant expenses) is required at a time of university statutes authorize a twenty­ decreasing government funding to the two-member body known as the Curators university and library. to serve as the governing board (similar to 2. The large collection, containing a library board). The Curators are chosen many old and fragile materials housed in from among the faculty of the colleges of buildings of unusual antiquity, leads to Oxford. As the size of the body and sched­ many conservation problems. Many con­ ules limit frequent gatherings, a small servation solutions will be expensive to group of its members serve on a standing implement. committee that meets once a week with 3. The 100 percent retention system the Bodley's librarian or secretary to dis­ may be less feasible in terms of increasing cuss current library business. The Cura­ expense and lack of space in the electronic tors board establishes the general direc­ age. tion and rules for the library's operations None of these problems is likely to be but is not involved in its daily functioning. solved easily or quickly. The daily management of the library is in the hands of Bodley's Librarian and Secretary of the Bodleian staff (see figure 1). The secretary at the Bodleian, as in most British institutions, is the chief adminis­ Bodley's Librarian trative officer of the organization. The cur­ Bodley's current Librarian, David rent secretary, Charles Mould, handles Vaisey, is the twenty-second Librarian in the financial operations of the library, succession since the appointment by Bod­ deals with personnel matters, and over­ ley of the first Librarian, Thomas James, in sees the. maintenance and security of the 1602. This is a remarkably small number in library's historic buildings. the nearly 400 years the post has existed. 8 Finances are a major issue in the wake of Vaisey~ who became Librarian in 1986, government funding cuts during the was previously Keeper of Western Manu­ Thatcher administration. Oxford and its li­ scripts. His tenure has seen the Bodleian brary are currently in the middle of a five­ progress in its development of an online year period, 1986-91, that will see an over­ catalog system and increase outside fund­ all reduction in funding of 11 percent. raising efforts to strengthen all aspects of Since the summer of 1988 the Bodleian has the library, especially to help fund a major been engaged in a major fund-raising retrospective conversion of its manual cat- campaign seeking to raise the monies for Curators Bodley's Librarian Department of Department of Department of Keeper of Western Manuscripts Oriental Manuscripts Printed Books the Catalogue Secretary FIGURE 1. Bodleian Library Organizational Chart 102 College & Research Libraries March 1990 maintaining and hopefully expanding the als produced in a broader range of lan­ library's collections and services. Some guages. The principal languages collected £1.5 million ($2.5 million) have been con­ are those of the Middle Eastern (especially tributed to date.10 Hebrew and Arabic); central Asia, the Many changes have occurred in recent Caucasus, Mongolia, Tibet, and the Far years regarding personnel matters. At one East (chiefly Chinese, Japanese, and Ko­ time Bodleian staff did not have contracts. rean); and southeast Asia. Today they do. All professional staff are The many languages and dialects of In­ given tenure after completing a probation­ dia, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan are excluded, ary period. It is not uncommon to meet as these are collected by the Indian Insti­ staffers who have spent their entire ca­ tute Library. However, this material is reers within Bodley walls. More formal housed and maintained by the depart­ training programs for staff have been in­ ment for the institute's use. stituted. In keeping with the times, the The department is especially strong in Bodleian now has a ''Code of Practice on Hebraica (Bodley himself was a Hebrew Sexual Harrassment.'' scholar), while the Wardrop collection of Georgian is the largest in the language Department of Western Manuscripts outside the Soviet Union. There are over Current Keeper of Western Manuscripts 1,500 Arabic manuscripts and over 2,000 Mary Clapinson is the first woman to hold in Persian. Edward Fitzgerald turned to a keepership in the Bodleian. This unit of the Bodleian for the manuscript used for the library houses a treasure trove of manu­ his translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar scripts, personal papers, and illuminated Khayyam. manuscripts produced over the centuries In whatever area collected, the empha­ in most of the western languages. Its mate­ sis is to provide material to support the rials include an esoteric range from St. Mar­ faculty of Oriental languages in Oxford. garet's Gospel (eleventh century) to the For covering such a vast front the Bodleian personal papers of J.R.R. Tolkien (twenti­ department is small when compared to a eth century) and much else both before and university like Harvard, which has a full­ since. The earliest item is on papyrus from time staff of about twelve, plus clerical about the second century B.C. workers to maintain its collection. Oxford Much of the department's collections is stretched to provide services with a staff were gathered during the seventeenth to of six. the nineteenth centuries. It is especially strong in materials related to English his­ Department of Printed Books tory. For example, the Clarendon papers Deputy Librarian Julian Roberts is also and the Atlee papers are located here. Keeper of Printed Books. He notes that the There has been a major effort to acquire first books in Oxford's library came in the the papers of persons eminent in literary medieval period and were copies from and public life. books abroad. The library itself was first Mary Clapinson notes that the con­ formed about 1488 to house a donation of straints of space are forcing a more selec­ illuminated manuscripts given by Hum­ tive attitude to be taken toward what is ac­ phrey, Duke of Gloucester.u quisitioned by the library.