Silicon Insider: Britain Embraces Start-Ups

O X F O R D, England, Dec. 3 -- The Bodleian Library is nearly as old as printed books themselves.

The first library to appear at Oxford is dated to about 1320. In 1488, Humfrey, the Duke of Gloucester and Henry V's younger brother, built a library here to house 281 priceless manuscripts — all of them tragically scattered to the winds during the reign of Edward VI, who ordered the destruction of anything that hinted of Roman Catholicism.

The might have been the end for the library, and perhaps even Oxford University as a center of learning, had it not been for a retired diplomat of Queen Elizabeth, who retired early, married rich and wanted to spend his new fortune on good works.

His name was Sir Thomas Bodley, and in 1602 he refurbished the old library building and filled it with 2,500 books, making it one of the largest libraries then on the planet.

Today, the Bodleian remains one of the world's greatest libraries, with millions of books, from a copy of the Acts of the Apostles annotated by the Venerable Bede in the 7th century to the earliest illustrated Canterbury Tales to texts published just last week. This collection alone is awesome enough, but add to that the buildings in which it is housed — from late Gothic Divinity School to Humfrey's Elizabethan library (the one used by Harry Potter in the movie) to the Georgian dome of the Radcliffe Camera — and you have one of the world's greatest treasures.

But even as the Bodleian offers an unequaled glimpse into the past, the library itself is gazing intently into the future. As part of a major new capital campaign, the Bodleian is planning to digitize more and more of its rare manuscripts in order to make them available to online users throughout the world. Even now, tucked discreetly under the dark oak shelves and beneath the painted coffered ceilings, one can spot glowing computer monitors and ISDN plugs.

Britain’s New Revolution

This compelling combination of old and new at the Bodleian symbolizes a larger revolution taking place in the UK, particularly at the great university towns of Oxford and Cambridge.