Knowra Bodleian Library Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library is the University of Oxford’s main research library, formally opened in 1602. It is one of Europe’s oldest libraries and a legal deposit library for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Thomas Bodley : An English diplomat and scholar who rebuilt Oxford’s university library in the late sixteenth century. His restoration and endowment led to the library’s reopening in 1602.
Legal deposit : A legal requirement that publishers provide copies of their publications to designated libraries. Legal deposit gives the Bodleian a continuing stream of UK and Irish publications.
Bodleian Library collections : Books, manuscripts, archives, maps, and other research materials held by the Bodleian Library. The collections are the scholarly resources at the heart of the institution.
Bodleian Shakespeare First Folio : The Bodleian Library’s copy of the 1623 First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays. This celebrated volume exemplifies the library’s rare printed collections.
Duke Humfrey’s Library : A fifteenth-century reading room at the University of Oxford, now part of the Bodleian Library. Bodley restored this surviving medieval room as the library’s first reading space.
Copyright libraries : Libraries entitled to receive copies of works published under a country’s legal deposit rules. The Bodleian is one of the United Kingdom’s copyright libraries.
Bodleian Library special collections : Rare books, manuscripts, archives, and other distinctive materials held for research in the Bodleian Libraries. These holdings give the library significance beyond its general research collections.
Bodleian Library Tolkien manuscripts : Manuscripts and papers by J. R. R. Tolkien held in the Bodleian Libraries. The Tolkien archive shows the library’s role in preserving modern literary papers.
University of Oxford : A collegiate research university in Oxford, England, with origins dating to the eleventh century. The Bodleian was founded to serve Oxford’s scholars and remains the university’s central research library.
Oxford University Libraries : The coordinated library system serving the University of Oxford, including the Bodleian and its subject libraries. The Bodleian operates within a wider network rather than as an isolated collection.
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