Bodleian Library store to be built in Swindon, UK

"Millions of books from Oxford's historic Bodleian Library are to be housed on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Swindon, it emerged last night. The university was thwarted in its plans to build a GBP28m book depository on Oxford's Osney Mead industrial estate after a long planning row. Now the Bodleian has decided to buy a 15-acre site at South Marston, 28 miles from Oxford, where it will build a giant warehouse to initially hold eight million books. The university said it could find no appropriate site in or around Oxford to store its books, after its original plan was dismissed by a planning inspector. Instead, its books will have to be carried to and from Oxford by road on the A420. The move means Oxford will miss out on jobs created by the £25m storage centre, both while it is being built and once it opens. And the 400-year-old Bodleian will face criticism on environmental grounds for choosing to transport books on an already busy road. But the university said the purchase of the site in Wiltshire would clear the way for a £75.6m plan to refurbish the New Bodleian Building." - Newsquest Media Group