Oxford Expands Library With 153 Miles of Shelves

Oxford University's Bodleian Library has purchased a huge £26m warehouse to give a proper home to over 6 million books and 1.2 million maps. The Library has been housing the collection in a salt mine, and plans on transferring the manuscripts over the next year. "The BSF will prove a long-awaited solution to the space problem that has long challenged the Bodleian," said its head librarian Dr Sarah Thomas. "We have been running out of space since the 1970s and the situation has become increasingly desperate in the last few years." The 153 miles of new shelf space will only be enough for the next 20 years however because of the library's historic entitlement to a copy of every volume published in the UK.

Comments

LOC

[boristdog]

How many typewritten pages or Libraries of Congresses is that?

They're keeping books not data

[fantomas]

One of the things the British Library is interested in is keeping books, not data. Books are valuable not only for the content but also may be of interest to future generations because of their typography, layout, binding, other aspects of their physical construction. Also it takes a lot more time and money to scan a book rather than putting it on a bookshelf.

Re:They're keeping books not data

[anUnhandledException]

It is true that digital archives need to be refreshed to current media however the issue is overblown.

There was roughly 10 years of overlap between 8" and 5.25" discs.
There was about 15 years of overlap between 5.25" and 3.5" discs, and nearly 26 years overlap between 3.5" and optical formats (3.5" was available in 1982 and Sony stopped making media in 2008).

CD and DVD can still be read in current BD drives so that window so conversion is still open.

Likewise CF debuted in 1994 and is still readable today.

The media issue is something archivers need to be aware of however it is generally overblown. The windows where older & newer formats overlap are very large and allows archivers to make decisions to only support the most "mainstream media".

For example data on an 8" disc in 1970 could have been converted to 3.5" disc in mid 80s and then to CD-ROM in mid 90s and still be readable today.

It is sad that Oxford doesn't make a digital archive. Once digitized the data can be easily stored in multiple locations, protected by redundant copies and never subject to the ravages of time, air, and the elements.

Re:Since the 70's!?

[BrokenHalo]

Proficiency in Latin was still an entry requirement back then.

Well, why not? Don't you people learn Latin in high-schcool any more? When I was a boy, it was compulsory.

But that was so long ago, I no longer know what the Latin is for "get off my lawn". :-)

Re:You need a good scanner

[bill_mcgonigle]

rather than the one that has failed to last even 30.

The Magna Carta didn't survive because it was left out in somebody's barn for 800 years. Take care of your stuff over the generations and it'll last.

Computer generations are faster, but I think the bigger problem is that we've been able to keep more stuff than we could store until just about now. I'm putting together a little 5x1.5TB ZFS box for home, and I don't think I have the data to fill it. That's a first. But I guess it's like having 153 miles of shelving. Come to think of it, I've got Rubbermaid totes out in the shed with books I don't have shelfspace for...