New Bodleian Library Refurbishment

9 March 2010

‘A storehouse of knowledge … an engine for scholarship:

Modernising the Bodleian Library’

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Client Brief Key Objectives:

- Safeguarding the collections

- Modernising research facilities

- Promoting the collections for wider understanding

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Objectives: Safeguarding the collections

Standards:

Environmental control

Fire suppression

Common services

Oxford has ‘skipped a generation’

Space:

Growth

Good management

Complete renewal of storage facilities

Meet British Standards

Satisfy Government

Conservation Centre

High-level care for the special collections

Leading institution for research into science of preservation.

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Objectives: Modernising research facilities

Changing modes of scholarshipEvidence-based learningGraduate studiesResearch skillsMasterclassesDigital scholarship

Visiting scholars and research culture

Dissemination of researchExhibitionsDigital resources

New reading roomsOperational efficiency

Facilities for digitally-based scholarshipDigital Media Centre

Facilities for teachingMasterclasses

Visiting Scholars CentreResearch culture

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Objectives: Promoting the collections for wider understanding

New Bodleian a ‘shy’ building

Great collections cannot be shared by public

Contribution of the University to science, learning and culture

New audiences

Exhibitions

50, 000 visitors per exhibition

‘Permanent’ treasures

Loans

Research outputs

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• LIBRARY STRATEGY

New Bodleian and Giles Gilbert-Scott

The New Bodleian was designed for a different world:

The University of Oxford was smaller and less research-intensive

Researchers operated in different ways

The general public had a different view of ‘the heritage’.

Giles Gilbert-Scott

Broad Street – as existing

Perception – Public identity

What do we want the New Bodleian to say?

Seat of learning & academia

Sought after destination for academics

Reservoir of accumulated knowledge

Public not excluded

Gravitas versus accessibility

Existing View from Sheldonian

New Bodleian – Concept

Ground Floor Public Areas – Perspective Section

Site Plan

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

Forming the entrance – South Façade Proposed

Forming the entrance – Proposed Steps and South Colonnade

Forming the entrance – Proposed Steps and South Colonnade

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

Ground Floor Public Areas – Perspective View of Proposed Entrance Hall

Ground Floor Public Areas – Perspective View of Proposed Exhibition Gallery

Ground Floor Public Areas – Perspective View of Proposed Seminar / Auditorium

Level H – Ground Floor Plan - Reader Access Areas

Reader Access Areas - Original Photos of Existing East Entrance, Corridor and Vestibule

Reader Access Areas – Proposed East Corridor

Reader Access Areas – Proposed East Corridor

Reader Access Areas – Perspective View of Refurbished East Corridor

Reader Access Areas – Perspective View of Refurbished Parks Road Lobby

Level F – First Floor Plan - Reader Access Areas – General Enquiries

Reader Access Areas – Perspective View of Proposed General Enquiries

Reader Access Areas – Perspective View of Proposed General Enquiries

Reader Access Areas - Original Photos of First Floor Catalogue Room and Reading room

Reader Access Areas - Original Photo of First Floor Catalogue Room

Reader Access Areas - Proposed Refurbished Reading Rooms 1 & 2

Reader Access Areas - Existing Photo of former Catalogue Room

Reader Access Areas – Proposed Perspective View of Refurbished Reading Room 1

Preservation and refurbishment of Reading Room

Study Centre - Proposed Perspective View from East

Study Centre - Proposed Perspective View from West

Reader Access Areas – Reading room 3 – Perspective view

Section – G-G - Basement Bookstack Areas

Level L - Basement -3 Plan

Level K - Basement -2 Plan

Level J - Basement -1 Plan

‘An ark to save learning from the deluge’ (Francis Bacon: 1620)

At a ‘decisive moment’ in the University’s history:

Major project to renew Library facilities

New Bodleian project at the heart of these plans: the most important library development in Oxford for 400 years

New Bodleian will result in the transformation of the infrastructure for scholarship