Blogpost 4

Queens College and Bodleian Library, Oxford

The process was painstaking this week! I spent hours navigating the Web for images and videos related to this particular library. No images of interest found or Youtube related videos. I stumbled upon a Yahoo image via Flikr that led me an interesting article from The Guardian newspaper UK. I was working on this blog at State Library, VIC. After sheer frustration I decided to ask a Librarian for some help in locating any books of interest on this library. She found naught! We both decided it best to focus on Bodleian Libraries as Queens College is one of its five participant libraries. It too has a mention.

Queens College Upper Library

Queen’s has one of the best-stocked college libraries in Oxford, with around 50,000 volumes in the current lending collection.

The Upper Library (pictured above) quite baroque in appearance is considered one of the finest rooms in Oxford and has been a focal point for the College ever since its construction at the end of the seventeenth century and remains a reading room for students attending the University.

The College has one of the largest and most diverse collections of rare books in Oxford with around 100,000 volumes in the antiquarian collection. Although the Library was founded in the fourteenth century, very little of the original collections of manuscripts and printed books remain. However, thanks to a number of generous benefactions made over the last three hundred years, Queen’s now has one of the largest and richest collections in Oxford. Items from the collections are often on display in the Upper Library.

"The world exists in order to become a book" - Mallarme

A map of England and Wales by Christopher Saxton (1542?-1610?)

Are Maps boring? an exhibition is available online from the display in Queen’s Upper Library from 2010. Well worth a visit.

Oxford's Bodleian is looking to the future of digital archiving for its book collection, they receive a copy of every book published in the UK, so undoubtedly they must be looking at ebooks and archiving copies of those too. They are also looking back at preserving manuscripts and understanding old texts, which is great for appreciators of things from time gone by! This library remains the classic representation of English education and research in a prestigious learning institution. Here I found this interesting article on Copyright and Google

Take for example the oldest reading room 'Duke Humphrey' where many scenes from the well known Harry Potter was filmed. You may remember Hermione's returned books simply floating back to their designated spots... what a relief for the shelving staff!  Supposedly you can’t take bags or pens into the reading room. Your books, notepaper, pencils, and laptops have to be carried into the room in clear, plastic bags provided by the cloakroom staff. Strict rules for this quiet space.

REFERENCES

Griliches, Diane Asseo 2008, Library: the drama within, Bunker Hill Publishing Inc, Piermont.

The Queen's College 2012, Library History 2012, The Queen's College, viewed 7 May 2012, <http://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/library/history>.

The Creative Penn 2012, Literary Oxford: The Bodleian Library, Pandora Archive, viewed 7 May 2012, <http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/103961/20090831-1356/www.thecreativepenn.com/2009/08/16/literary-oxford-the-bodleian-library/index.html>.

Library Student Journal 2011, From Bodleian to Idea Stores: The Evolution of English Library Design, Miller, Rebecca K 2008, Library Student Journal, viewed 7 May, 2012, <http://www.librarystudentjournal.org/index.php/lsj/article/view/62/157>.