The new Weston Library just opened two weekends ago. It is an addition to the Bodleian Library. That's right. While some people think books and libraries are dying, and everything is electronic, look to Oxford. They had to build a bigger, giant library to house millions of books! They also wanted to make those books accessible to people for research.
Something I love about it is the access they give the public. While you have to have a reader card to enter the reading rooms, when you walk into the main hall, there are glassed-in reading stacks up at the top level of the lobby encircling the hall. So you can see part of the library in such a modern way.
They have a wonderful exhibit going on (which will change every so often), cafe, and shop.
The exhibit on now is called 'Marks of Genius', and they have on display many manuscripts and books of rare quality. For example, they had the handwritten pages of Jane Austen's unfinished book, Lady Susan. Shakespeare's First Folio, the first collected works published after his death, in 1623. It is still in its original binding. The Magna Carta from 1217. The original painted cover jacket for the first edition of The Hobbit, painted by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1937. The Gutenberg Bible from 1455. So many wonderful books!
The gift shop has large windows that look out across Broad Street to the Sheldonian Theatre. I wanted almost everything in that shop. It is a dangerous place for me.
The cafe serves pastries, cookies, coffee, tea, and lunch items. I ate here the other day. It is so neat to munch on some vegetables while looking up at the floating book stack.
Take a peak into the Radcliffe Camera Reading Room and Listen to the sounds of the library (it's that lovely ambient library muffle):
https://www.ox.ac.uk/soundsofthebodleian/#radcam
Read about the new Weston Library and how the library is looking toward the future:
https://medium.com/@Oxford_University/how-do-you-design-the-library-of-the-future-22d9344e40f7
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