New Building of the Radcliffe Science Library

Abstract

THE new building of the Radcliffe Science Library was opened by the Princess Royal on Saturday, November 3. In Convocation on the same day, on the motion of the Master of Pembroke, an address of thanks was presented to Her Royal Highness. The Master of Pembroke gave a brief account of the history of the Library from its foundation by Dr. John Radcliffe, physician to William III and Queen Anne, with its original domicile in the building now called the Camera, its removal to the Museum, and its present status as a department of the Bodleian. The Princess Royal, through the Vice-Chancellor, expressed her gratification in being instrumental in throwing open facilities for scientific study which would be of the highest advantage not only to Oxford but also to the community at large. The new building is an extension of that erected in 1901 adjoining the Museum, and contains two large reading rooms, a three-deck bookstack and two rooms, one for rare books and the other for com mittees and similar purposes. Part of the first floor reading room has been set apart for mathematical teaching and research pending the erection of a mathematical institute. It is estimated that room will be available for a quarter of a million volumes. The new building, which has cost about £45,000, is the first stage in a scheme for the reorganisation and extension of the Bodleian Library, towards which the Rockefeller Foundation of New York is con tributing three fifths of the total expenditure. At present the Radcliffe Science Library contains a number of books from the Bodleian which will eventually be moved to the main bookstack to be erected in Broad Street, thus setting free ample shelving for the scientific literature of future genera tions.