Bodleian Law Library in Oxford

Last Thursday, Keith and I had another early start and caught the train for Oxford - yet again. I had arranged to meet the Law Librarian Ruth Bird at 10.30 and she had kindly agreed to show me around the library. It was a half hour walk from the station which I enjoyed enormously. Oxford sparkled and I enjoyed the relative quiet compared to the chaos from the day before in London. There is such a charm and elegance about Oxford.

The Bodleian Law Library is the largest law library in England and impressive. The building is relatively new - it was opened in 1964. Despite its youth, it has a heritage order on it, making it virtually impossible to make any changes to the building at all. There are many features of this library that I love. It is light and open. The ceiling is glass, letting in natural light. The ground floor is surrounded on three sides by additional levels that overlook the ground floor. There are long desks in the middle for the undergraduate students to use and then the masters and post grad students have their own desks or cubicles with views overlooking a beautiful field. The shelving is wooden and light in colour so the overall impression is of light and space. The architect created a building that has allowed a collection to expand and grow at a rate of a third of a kilometre each year.

The floor is cork tiles, which sounds rather nice, but after forty years, many are blackened by use. They can't be replaced by any other floor type - remember that heritage order? and cork tiles are no longer made. Ruth has made a few changes to the building, but each has been prefaced by years of meetings and negotiations. At least our pink carpet squares don't have any heritage value.

The collection is impressive and organised by jurisdiction - rather confusing for the user, as their books really could be anywhere, but this is in the process of change, as the library converts to the Moys system, which will be much more useful for the students. The ethos of the library is changing under Ruth's direction as the staff move from invigilating to a more user friendly approach. For the understated British, this will be some accomplishment.

The collection includes legislation going back to Henry VIII. Imagine that! They also have a wonderful collection of primary and secondary resources from the US, Canada, most of Europe, the EU and also the United Nations. What a privilege to work in such a library! I was inspired to see this library as it holds a wealth of treasures on its shelves.