The Camera Reading Room holds comparatively few books, not being a
store-room, but the volumes kept in it are the most-used modern works to
the number of about 27,000. But the Camera Basement, and the Underground
Bookstore which adjoins it, hold the great bulk of the books of the
last forty years. These are arranged by an elaborate system of subject
division, the more important sections being in the Basement, while the
less-used subjects (Minor Theology, Minor Prose and Verse, Scientific
handbooks now superseded for ordinary use, and the like) are kept in the
Underground Bookstore, with gigantic series such as the earlier editions
of the Ordnance Survey, the _Times_ from 1806, the _London Gazette_ and
some others. But certain entire sections, though modern books, are still
retained in the older part of the Bodleian (“Bodley”) as being specially
related to the studies pursued there: such are Bibliography, Palæography,
British topography, Family history and Numismatics.
[Sidenote: Outlying Store Rooms.]
Lastly, some outlying buildings have been lent as storerooms. Half of the
Sheldonian Theatre Basement keeps the Parliamentary Blue Books, and such
newspapers and journals as the Bodleian takes in. The Basement of the Old
Ashmolean holds the “Year-books” (so called from the accessions between
1824 and 1850 being arranged, not by subject but in order of acquisition)
and in general the octavo books received between 1824 and 1883. Finally,
beneath the New Examination Schools are preserved directories, some old
magazines and all novels.
In 1915 the numbers of volumes in these three main divisions were found
to be:—
In “Bodley” 422,000
(Old Reading Room 61,000)
In the “Camera” and Underground Store 321,000
In outlying buildings 279,000
Total 1,022,000
B. Organization
[Sidenote: Curators.]
The whole Library is subject ultimately to the authority of the Board
of Curators, fifteen in number. Of these, eight are official (the
Vice-Chancellor and two Proctors, and the five Regius Professors of
Divinity, Civil Law, Medicine, Hebrew and Greek); and seven are chosen
for ten years by Congregation from its resident members. The Curators
meet at least twice a term, and hold an Annual Visitation of the Library
on November 8, the anniversary of the opening of the Bodleian in 1602.
The income and expenditure and even the regulations of the Library are
under their control.
[Sidenote: Officers.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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