Stories & Updates

Library books moved to allow restoration to begin

27th June 2022

Crates of books are moved to storage facilities in Swindon
Crates of books are carefully taken to the Bodleian’s facility in Swindon for storage

As Trinity Term comes to an end and we wave goodbye to our undergraduate students for the summer, Exeter College’s Library is beginning a new and important chapter.

The Library has now closed for restoration work, which will be ongoing until Michaelmas term 2023. The renovation will modernise the Library’s facilities, make the building more energy efficient, provide additional reader spaces, make the Library fully accessible to all with a lift, step-free entrance and wheelchair-accessible WC, and restore George Gilbert Scott’s vision for a neo-Gothic library benefitting from plentiful natural light.

To facilitate the renovation the Library is being completely emptied of books, furniture and equipment. A temporary library for College members has been set up in the Saskatchewan Room on the Turl St site, where 6,000 of the College’s most-borrowed books were relocated last week. The remaining 35,000 or so library books are being moved into storage at the Bodleian’s specialist facility in Swindon, which has capacity for two million books. Reader spaces are being provided on the College’s Turl St and Cohen Quad sites so that students can continue to study in a peaceful setting.

The books are being moved by a company experienced in library moves. They will be packed and stored in strict order, so that they remain in perfect order when they are returned to the Library after the restoration is completed. The move is scheduled to take place over the next eight days. The crates are being wheeled across the Fellows’ Garden and loaded into trucks in Brasenose Lane for their journey to Swindon. They will stay at the Bodleian Storage Facility until the building work is complete and the newly refurbished library ready to house them.

Books are moved into the Saskatchewan Room
Library books are moved to the Saskatchewan Room temporary library