In one of the biggest commercial property investments in Swindon in recent years, Oxford’s Bodleian Library is to build a 300,000 sq ft book storage facility at Keypoint, South Marston.
Legal & General, advised by Whitmarsh Lockhart, has completed the freehold disposal of about 15 acres of land at the site to Oxford University for the development of the state of the art facility.
The new Bodleian Library storage facility, which is due to become operational in 2010, will house predominantly low demand items from the library’s collection. As a result, the facility is expected to fulfill approximately 200,000 requests per year, which is a reduction of more than 50 per cent over its previously anticipated use.
As part of the plans for the future of the Bodleian, the University announced that the New Bodleian will be renamed the Weston Library in honour of the £25m donation given in March 2008 by the Garfield Weston Foundation. The name change will come into effect following the refurbishment of the Library.
Sarah Thomas, Bodley’s librarian and director, Oxford University Library Services, said: “With the purchase of this site, we anticipate that the new storage facility will become operational in 2010. This will enable the renovation of the New Bodleian as a special collections library and the union of a number of faculty libraries into the Humanities Library on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.”
