Weston Library, University library in Broad Street, Oxford, England.
The Weston Library is a modern university building on Broad Street that extends the Bodleian Library's capacity for storing and accessing books. It contains eleven floors of storage space connected to the historic library through an underground conveyor system that moves materials between the two buildings.
The building opened in 1940 as the New Bodleian Library, with the Rockefeller Foundation funding 60 percent of its construction costs. During World War II, it served as storage for collections moved from other institutions and briefly housed military operations.
The library hosts rotating exhibitions from the Bodleian Libraries collections that draw both scholars and the general public to explore its holdings. Visitors experience how knowledge has been gathered and preserved through these displays, which shape how people understand the institution's role in Oxford's intellectual life.
The building is open to visitors who can freely access public areas including exhibition spaces, a gift shop, and a café without needing a library card. Accessing the collections themselves requires reader credentials, but staff are available to help direct you to the right area.
During World War II, the building served as a public air-raid shelter while simultaneously storing naval intelligence operations, making it a hidden command center beneath the city. This dual wartime purpose reveals how the structure was crucial not just for knowledge but also for national security.
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