Magdalen College library is to undergo a renovation due to the need for an increase in the amount of space available to students.
This will result in no student being able to use the library during the time it takes for the building work to be completed, starting in July 2014. A replacement book service will be available instead, and a replacement library provided.
An email sent out to students of the college by the Fellow Librarian, Christine Ferdinand, said, “We will need an alternative library during the 18 to 24 months it will take to complete the project. Our aim is to continue to provide a high quality library service during that time.”
The email also noted the steps that would have to be taken regarding the books currently stored in the New Library.
It said, “The New Library collection will have to be decanted and the whole building cleared during June after final examinations. While the details have yet to be finalised, we will ensure that more heavily used books will be available here at Magdalen.”
It was also stated that the intention was to provide access to the less frequently used books within 24 hours’ notice using the automated system, used by the main Bodleian Library, to request books from closed stacks.
The library was originally a single hall school designed in 1851, and was extensively redesigned in 1930 by Giles Gilbert Scott, who converted it into a library with space for 12 readers and a librarian. The college now requires room for 120 readers and additional space for storage and staff facilities
It also requires 3,000 linear metres of book space. Half of this will be on mobile oak storage in preparation for a less book-based future.
The renovations will prove the solution to these as yet unfulfilled requirements, proposing to rework the original interior. A new L-shaped extension will also be added, which will stretch along the rear and continue at right angles to the original along the Longwall boundary, where the edge of the college grounds are marked by the 15th-century city wall.
There are also plans for new landscaping work to be done adjacent to the extension to create external seating in the quad within a ‘scented garden’. The work will be carried out by Wright & Wright Architects. The Fellow Librarian told Cherwell that college authorities were looking at options for temporary library accommodation and that no complete decision had been made yet.
She also said, “Magdalen Library staff are as pleased as anyone else that the project to renovate and expand our New Library is going ahead next July.” The Fellow Librarian has reportedly moved her office out of the New Library in order to create more space for library staff to work in. Despite this, the staff have still had to “endure cramped working conditions, share desks and computers, and take their coffee breaks on the New Library Porch (which is the main entrance to the library).”
Amelia Ross, the Magdalen College JCR President, said to Cherwell, “The New Library renovation and extension is absolutely essential to address issues that students at Magdalen have been raising with the work space for years.
“Whilst unfortunately it will inevitably affect students, we are confident that the college will do everything they can to help with both book availability and in providing an alternative workspace for the time that the work is being done, which will hopefully be as short as possible.”
The Home Bursar at Magdalen College was unavailable for comment.
