Rector’s introduction

Introduction

Your Library is one of the most beautiful and atmospheric in Oxford, it has been the academic cradle for some of the great thinkers and writers of the last 165 years. Now it’s your turn to write the next chapter and help to restore this iconic building for the generations of Exeter students yet to come.

The Library at Exeter College was designed and built by the celebrated Victorian architect Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1856-7; it is a building of considerable architectural importance and one of the College’s most distinctive landmarks. The Library is central to the student experience at Exeter College, and the building and its collections are extensively used 24 hours a day. Heavy usage and the ravages of time, however, have had their impact. There has been very little significant updating of the Library since it was built, other than the installation of steel beams in the ceiling and the division of the Annexe into two floors, and now it is in need of significant restoration. I hope you will find the plans and ambitions laid out here interesting and inspiring, and that you will join your College community to help make them a reality.

“Last year 727 individual readers used or requested books from Exeter College Library including undergraduates, graduates and staff (academic and not). Between them they borrowed 14,193 books covering almost every subject imaginable. There is no doubt that the Library is the academic heart of the College.” Joanna Bowring, Librarian