Description

One of the largest libraries in Britain, the Bodleian Library has been a legal depository for copies of all books published in Britain and Ireland since 1610.  As a result, the mission of the library extends beyond supporting the courses taught at Oxford and the librarians seek to find a balance between operating as a modern library and fulfilling its mission as a heritage museum.

The librarians from the Bodleian have created a very helpful web site, which includes information about access, use, and collections.  Read the instructions available here and, if you have further questions, you may email these.

What makes the Bodleian unique:  the size of the collection, closed stacks, age of building.  Since the library collection is all reference (non-circulating), the books should be available when a scholar arrives to use it.

Collections

Because all the books published in the country are free, the Bodleian can build (invest in) large collections of non-British publications.  Because of the reputation of the institute, they are recipients of valuable collections of books, manuscripts, archives, etc., from donors.  Thus, the Bodleian is one of the largest research libraries in Britain.  One of the missions of the Bodleian is to preserve the materials housed there, which is why photocopying is so controversial.  Legal deposit does not include compact discs, software, or video, and so these are not being preserved at the moment.  One problem is that the libraries would become museums of technology because they would have to preserve the equipment for running the non-print materials since these change so rapidly.

Access

Application form for admission to the Bodleian is available on the web.  Be sure the form is HANDWRITTEN by your Recommender, or you may be denied entry.  To make sure a trip to Oxford is warranted, find the appropriate address on the Bodleain home page and email the Readers Services to explain your project and the types of materials needed.  If you have specific texts in mind, let them know you wish to see those.  Readers Services will forward your email inquiry to the appropriate librarians to ascertain whether there are materials within the collections, including those which have not yet been cataloged, which may prove valuable to your research. 

Contact admissions by email to make sure that you are brining the right paperwork and the correct letter of introduction.  I recommend bringing a separate letter of introduction if you wish to use manuscripts to prove that you need to use these often restricted resources.  

Using the Bodleian

The online catalog is called OLIS, and includes holdings for Oxford libraries other than the Bodleian.  All printed materials held by the Bodleian have records in OLIS.  There are separate catalogs for special collections and materials, such as music, ephemera, manuscripts, certain Oriental works, maps, etc. which may or may not have online catalog records.  If the collection you wish to use does not have an online catalog, consult with a reference librarian at Penrose to see if a printed catalog exists.  If not, then email Readers Services to inquire if the types of materials or the subject matter you are seeking is held in the collections.  Access to the Bodleian does not mean access to all Oxford libraries.  If you have materials you need to see that are held in other Oxford libraries, you must contact those directly to get permission for access.  These libraries, often associated with individual colleges within Oxford, do not have admissions application forms available on the web.  Email the librarian for the library directly to make your request. 

The library is non-circulating and the stacks are closed.  No one can check a book out from the library, and everyone follows the same procedures.  At present, requests are submitted manually, but an online request system is being developed.  "Stack fetching," or the retrieval of materials from the closed stacks, occurs several times a day.  Stack fetching is time consuming.  The huge collections are housed onsite and at a storage facility 7 miles from Oxford.  If the material is onsite (and the online catalog record should indicate this), then you will need to wait between 2 and 4 hours for the materials to be fetched.  However, materials are not fetched from 1-2 pm, nor on Saturday, and the library is closed on Sundays.  Thus, if you put in a request for a book on a weekday at 12:50 pm, it could be 4:00 pm before it arrives, and if an item is requested on Friday at 4:10 pm, the earliest it will be seen is on Monday morning at 11 am.  If the books required are in storage, they are physically located at Nuneham Courtenay, a village 7 miles from Oxford.  Three-quarters of a million volumes are stored there and take up to 2 days to be fetched.  Therefore, planning your research in Oxford is vitally important.

Books are not stored by classification number, so even if browsing the shelves were possible, books on like topics are not shelved together.  However,  Library of Congress Subject Headings are used in the catalog records, so pay careful attention to the subject heading terminology for relevant books to extend your search.