Richard Ovenden

I am the 25th Bodley's Librarian, leading the University of Oxford's system of research libraries. I am President of the Digital Preservation Coalition and active in the world of libraries, archives and information, and also active in historical research.

I was educated at Durham University and University College London, and have worked as a professional librarian since 1985. I have served on the staff of Durham University Library, the House of Lords Library, the National Library of Scotland (as Deputy Head of the Rare Books Section), the University of Edinburgh (as Director of Collections), and since 2003 at the Bodleian Libraries (first as Keeper of Special Collections, from 2011-2014 as Deputy Librarian, the Bodleian Libraries, then from 2014 as Bodley’s Librarian).

I sit on the Board of Research Libraries UK and of the Consortium of European Research Libraries, am a Trustee of the Krazsna Kraus Foundation, of Chawton House Library, and of the Victoria County History for Oxfordshire.

I have published widely on the history of collecting, the history of photography and on professional concerns of the library, archive, and information world, am a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2015. Recently I headed Oxford’s involvement with the Google mass digitization project. I hold a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford.