Bigger plan needed

THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AND BLACKWELLS: AN EDURING PARTNERSHIP

Julian Blackwell & Richard Ovenden

Bodleian Library

• Founded 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley• Main Library of the University• 11m volumes, major international research

collections• 520 staff• 31 libraries in the Bodleian system• Over 250k new books added per annum• Budget c. £32m

‘And where before … because it never had any lasting allowance, for augmentation of the

number, or supply of books decayed: whereby it came to pass, that when those that were in

being, were either wasted or embezzled, the whole foundation came to ruin:

To meet with that inconvenience, I will so provide hereafter … as you shall be still assured of a standing annual rent, to be disbursed every year in buying booke, in

officers stipends, and other pertinent occasions …

Sir Thomas Bodley, 1598

Blackwells

• Bookselling business founded 1846• Flagship shop on Broad Street opened in 1879• Publishing business under imprint B.H. Blackwell

founded 1880.• Became University bookseller under Benjamin

Henry (1849-1924), merchant scholar• Established Library business internationally

during second half of 20th century• Publishing business sold to Wiley and Sons in

2005.

Connections between Blackwell family and the University

• University bookseller for 130 years

• Generations educated at Oxford (Magdalen College School, Merton and Trinity Colleges).

• Sir Basil gifted rare books to the Library of Merton College in the 1970s and 1980s.

• Gift of Blackwell Archive to Merton College in 2004

• William Beckford Archive gifted to Bodleian in 1984 in memory of Sir Basil Blackwell.

• Julian Blackwell: ‘The Bodleian Library especially was an institution with which my father and his fellow Blackwellians maintained a symbiotic relationship’ (2004).

• Gift of the Library of B H Blackwell announced in 2005

Blackwells – ‘The Gaffer’s Room’

Broad Street – as existing

Approaches to the building – Broad Street (existing)

Existing View from Sheldonian

New Bodleian – Concept

Forming the entrance – Proposed Perspective View from Broad Street - West

Forming the entrance – Proposed Steps and South Colonnade

Ground Floor Public Areas – Perspective View of Proposed Entrance Hall

Ground Floor Public Areas – Perspective View of Proposed Exhibition Gallery

Richard OvendenKeeper of Special Collections & Associate Director, Bodleian LibraryFellow, St Hugh’s College

richard.ovenden@bodley.ox.ac.uk 44 1865 2877158