Oxonian library cuts

THE OXFORD STUDENT: Our libraries are being treated as an economic luxury. Peter Hill writes that the cuts on library provision in Oxford are having detrimental effects on students

The other week, nine Oxford academics submitted a ‘Question in Congregation’ on the cuts to the University’s libraries budget. The immediate cause of this was the recent proposal to close the Oriental Institute Library, currently in the Oriental Institute, and transfer its holdings to the Sackler Library, already under considerable pressure. This move has been criticised by both students and staff in the Oriental Institute and the Classics Faculty, and has been covered in the Oxford Student and Cherwell.

But this proposal for the Oriental Institute Library is only one part of a wider restructuring of the University’s Humanities libraries. In 2012 the History Faculty Library was closed (despite opposition by academics and students) and its contents moved to the Gladstone Link. The Taylorian’s Slavonic and Greek Library is in the process of being wound up, and its books moved into the Taylorian. What future centralisations, rationalisations and downsizings the University management may have in mind have not been disclosed. What is certain, however, is that the root cause of the closures is budgetary.

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This sounds like a setback for both the study of ancient Semitic languages (in the Oriental Institute Library) and Slavonic. I hope they manage to keep afloat in these tough economic times.