Tuesday 13 September 2011

News from the central Bodleian

In the central Bodleian, a large underground area between the Old Bodleian and the Radcliffe Camera has been redeveloped as a new open access area for readers. With space for more than 250,000 volumes, the area (known as the Gladstone Link, after the Victorian prime minister William Gladstone who designed the original rolling bookcases housed there) is intended to hold all the academic books received in the last three years (other than those selected for open shelves in the reading rooms) and books identified as being ‘high use’.
Old Gladstone shelving


Tunnel between the Old Library and Gladstone Link


This should greatly increase the amount of material immediately accessible to readers and reduce the amount of traffic to and from the book storage facility in Swindon. Look out for books with the location 'Bodleian - Gladstone Link Open Shelves' on SOLO (see below). These cannot be requested to other locations but may be read in the Gladstone Link or taken by readers to any reading room within the Old Bodleian or Radcliffe Camera.




Accessible from both the Old Library and the Radcliffe Camera, the Gladstone Link is well worth a visit.

You will be pleased to hear that the music book moves are complete and that staffing levels in the Music Section are now back to normal. This means that there should now be a regular presence of Music staff in Duke Humfrey’s Library to help with your enquiries, Sally in the study on the left as you enter Duke Humfrey and Juliet on the enquiry desk in Selden End. 


MH/JM

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