The New Bodleian will be ready by 2014. Photo © Jon Pratty
Oxford University’s Bodleian library will become a major research centre and venue for art, seminars and historic collections as part of a major overhaul planned for the building over the next five years.
The 16th century archive will be renamed the New Bodleian in honour of the £25 million donated to the redevelopment campaign by the Garfield Weston Foundation last year.
The gift, which was both the most generous ever made by the Foundation and the largest in the Library’s history, is part of the Oxford Thinking campaign, aiming to raise £1.25 billion to preserve and expand the heritage of the site.
Plans for exhibition galleries, lectures and a revitalisation of the 1930s Giles Gilbert Scott bookstore were also revealed in the announcement, made by Bodleian Librarian Sarah Thomas at the annual Founder’s Luncheon on Saturday (March 14 2009).
“The Garfield Weston Foundation has time and again shown its generosity to Oxford,” said Thomas, speaking at the event to commemorate the birth of Sir Thomas Bodley, who created the Library in March 1545.
“Their commitment to help make the extraordinary collections of the Bodleian accessible to a wide audience and to create the conditions which ensure the security, preservation, and scholarly use of our collections is marked not only by their philanthropy, but by their passion for excellence.”
