From "boutique" to mass digitization: The google library project at Oxford

Abstract

Sir Thomas Bodley, in founding his Library in Oxford in 1602, intended it to be not just for the University of Oxford, but also for what he called the "Republic of Letters".By this hemeant that the librarys collections should be open to all who had need of them.This ethos is one that has held good for four centuries, and of which Oxford is proud. The Bodleians doors are open to the intellectually curious, whether they have an academic affiliation or not. Indeed, it is notable that 60% of the Bodleians registered readers are not members of the University of Oxford. Fromthe start, Bodley intended his library to be one of the great libraries of the world. He encouraged his "very great store of honourable friends" to give money and books to support his project. The Bodleian acquired the legal deposit privilege in 1610, the first library in the UK to do so, and today it the oldest extant legal deposit library in the world.With a stock of over 8 million items, built up by legal deposit, purchase and gift, Oxford is fortunate in possessing in the Bodleian what is the richest array of manuscript and print collections of any university library in the world. Over the centuries very many scholars have travelled to Oxford to use the Bodleians collections,while those unable tomake the journey, or unable to stay for long,have usedmicrofilms and transparencies as surrogates to aid themin their studies.Recently, the advent of the Internet and the ability to digitize large quantities of text and images, and make them available over theWeb, has transformed ways of working. © 2008 Springer-Verlag London Limited.