“This week, “the Bod” unveiled a £26 million storage facility to house 8.4 million books and maps (always a crucial element in the collection). It will be built in Swindon, which is a long way from the fan-vaulted Gothic ceilings and Palladian reading room of the Oxford library, but much more convenient than dumping them in a salt mine in Cheshire, the current fate of thousands of volumes.”