A NEW chapter will begin in the 412-year history of the Bodleian as the Weston Library opens its doors to the public at 8am tomorrow.

For some months now readers and researchers have been enjoying fruits of an £80m scheme which has seen the transformation of the New Bodleian on Broad Street.

Now known as the Weston, it has a 15.5m high entrance foyer, filling space created by the removal of the 11-storey book stack that had stood in the heart of the building.

To celebrate the renewal of the Gilbert Scott Grade II-listed building, the public can enjoy behindthe- scenes tours and lectures on the building work that has gone on over the past three years.

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Bodley’s Librarian Richard Ovenden said: “This project has been an amazing opportunity to transform an unloved library building at the heart of Oxford.

“In a city full of libraries, it is one of the most significant and exciting library transformations for many years.

“We are particularly delighted to be able to welcome the public into the Weston Library, to help them appreciate and enjoy the collections built up in the university over centuries and to engage with the ground-breaking research which surrounds these collections in Oxford.”

The programme of events over Saturday and Sunday will fittingly coincide with tomorrow’s launch of the Oxford Literary Festival.

The great library building will be still predominantly for scholars and researchers.

Oxford Mail:

Another view of the new multi-million pound Weston Library.

But with millions of books having been moved out to a huge book depository at Swindon, space now exists for the public to enjoy the building and its treasures in a variety of exhibition areas.

An exhibition titled Marks of Genius will also start this weekend, running until September 20.

In what amounts to the Bodleian’s “greatest hits”, the exhibition will include Shakespeare’s First Folio, an original draft of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the 1455 Gutenberg Bible and the dust cover of The Hobbit, designed by Tolkien himself.

A highlight will be the Magna Carta, on display in the birthplace of King John, exactly 800 years after he put his seal on the document seen as the foundation of liberty, in a meadow beside the Thames.

For many the biggest attraction will be the Weston Library itself.

Already dubbed the “Mod Bod” it is unrecognisable, at least inside, from the building opened by King George VI in 1946.

Lead architect Jim Eyre was the driving force behind the project to breathe new life into the 1930s structure. Mr Eyre said the design aimed to celebrate the library’s precious objects and “to protect the future of this cultural and intellectual landmark.”

Steps on Broad Street now lead into a new entrance colonnade with glass doors on the south side of the building.

Most of the core of the building was cleared out, with three storeys of book stacks kept in the basement, providing 39km of storage space for 1.4m volumes of rare books, manuscripts and maps. Before its closure the 11-storey New Bodleian had housed some 3.5m books.

Blackwell Hall, housing the new cafe and information desk, open to the public, occupies most of the ground floor.

Two exhibition galleries and a new lecture theatre are close to the hall, from where visitors can look up to see a glass-sided “floating stack”.