Bodleian Library Book Storage Facility (BSF), South Marston, UTRNTA visit 5 March 2025
Compared with the historic reputation of the Bodleian Library, the Book Storage Facility (BSF) sounds altogether rather mundane and yet they are inseparable as we learned on our visit to the Storage Facility in South Marston on Wednesday 5 March 2025.
The BSF provides environmentally controlled storage for over 10 million “lower use” items including books, maps, manuscripts, microfilms, periodicals and newspaper. Each item has a URN to ensure that it can quickly be identified. This enables it to be selected as required to start on its journey to one of the libraries in Oxford.
As a regular user of the BOD, I can confirm how well the system works to deliver books and other material to the Library. However, nothing prepared me for the extraordinary size and complexity of the operation in South Marston
To house the huge collection of books etc. so that each item is readily accessible requires 150 miles of shelving. The shelving is housed in several vast 10 metres high chambers accessed by fork-lift devices which can reach the precise location of the selected item. The tray containing the selected item then begins a carefully controlled journey which will end in the particular library where the student is waiting patiently.
Our guides were delightfully well-informed and allowed us to be suitably overwhelmed by the idea of 10 million items and vast storage facilities. However, they also encouraged us to enjoy the unique nature of the different items such as WWI Trench Maps.
The BSF may not sound very romantic but our visit certainly invited us into a fascinating new world.
Rob Crow
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