The Bodleian is the second largest library in England a famous library, which is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It is used as a research library at Oxford University and simultaneously acts as a legal deposit library. Similar to the State Library of Victoria having the staggering range and value of their resources, items cannot be borrowed and are used as reference tools only.
This academic library was established in 1602. The library follows strict procedure one that caught my interest, which reinforces that items must be kept in its original enclosure “I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, nor to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library.” No entrance is allowed to patrons who don’t agree with the speculated terms and conditions.
Some of the older collection from the 19th century is digitized and the library has collected manuscripts many of which have been generously donated to the library. The library has retained an impressive array of resources. Manuscript collections: The Ashmole Manuscripts, The Carte Manuscripts, The Douce Manuscripts, The Laud Manuscripts, the letters of the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Individual manuscripts: The Codex Bodley, The Codex Ebnerianus,The Codex Laudianus, The Codex Laud, The Codex Mendoza, The Codex Tischendorfianus III, The Codex Tischendorfianus IV, The Huntington MS 17, the oldest manuscript with complete text of the four Gospels in Bohairic (Coptic), The Magna Carta ,The Song of Roland, The Vernon Manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet.a.1).
As the library has over 11 million items and growing in numbers are facing problems with storage space, the handling of older and decaying resources was worrisome. The architecture is stunning and filmmakers have taken advantage of their scenery. An example is Duke Humfrey's Library acting as the Hogwarts library in the first Harry Potter movie.
Reflection on blogging experience:
I aimed to focus on key information which unfolded my main findings for the topic of choice. In the research process I used a popular encyclopedia available online.
References:
Bodleian Library, 2010, Bodleian Library, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, viewed 3 September 2010, < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodleian_Library >.
You are doing a good job with summarising your research findings Justyna but there are a few issues with your referencing. Any direct quotes should be referenced in-text and google books are referenced like traditional monographs with an abrided URL. See your Harvard Guide for more detailed instructions on how to cite ebooks. Watch your spelling too. I think your blog would benefit from more images and there are some great videos on YouTube about the Bodleian Library you could include also. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHi Justyna,
ReplyDeleteToday I noticed a reference to the Bodeian that you might be interested in as an aside. It was a review of the republished First English Dictionary of Slang, originally published by the Bodleian in 1699. At that time the word 'slang' had not yet been invented and so the book's title was "A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, in its several Tribes of Gypsies, Beggars, Thieves, Cheats Etc". I saw it mentioned in a review by Michael Quinion in his e-magazine dated 2/10. He publishes his free e-magazine weekly. URL http://www.worldwidewords.org/. From the website you can get to the e-mag. I hope you enjoy having a look at it. Cheers, Jan