A true scholar

I am taken in to meet the Librarian, the Protobibliothecarius Bodleianus. A man immaculately, but not fussily, dressed, who immediately radiates warmth and welcome. Dr Reginald Carr, B.A. (Leeds), M.A. (Manc.), M.A. (Cantab.), M.A.

(Oxon.), Hon.D.Litt. (Leic.), F.R.S.A. - I got that off his headed notepaper - but known throughout the library world simply as Reg'.

My first question was, How does anyone in the world end up becoming something as rarefied as Bodley's Librarian? The reply was, "Chance". Reg explained that even as a young child he collected books. As young as four he was inscribing them with the words "Reggie's Library" and giving them running numbers. But he had always pictured himself (once he passed beyond the childhood dreams of becoming an engine driver or a doctor) ending up as an academic, probably staying at his alma mater, the University of Leeds, or maybe in the city of his birth, Manchester. Growing up in a city heavily damaged by the Luftwaffe during the war, Reg remembers playing among bombsite ruins and half-demolished buildings.

One of his closest school friends, who would have shared those early impressions, was a boy called David Jones, who was to play a bit-part in Coronation Street, the Artful Dodger in Oliver on Broadway, and then become the lead singer in the 60s pop group The Monkees! Reg was to follow a very different path.

After graduating with a First Class Honours degree in French and German at Leeds, Reg did a higher degree in 19th-century French literature at Manchester (his research thesis on the anarchism of the writer Octave Mirbeau was published by Manchester University Press in 1977). But for a chance encounter in a library, Reg would probably have followed the standard academic path of a university lectureship. He had married immediately after graduation in 1968, and his wife taught while he did his higher degree. With a first baby on the way in the Spring of 1970, Reg turned his attention to applying for real jobs', and he put his hand up for three openings: one as a French teacher in a public school in Dorset, one as a lecturer in French literature at the University of Belfast, and the other as an Assistant Librarian in the University of Manchester, where he had been told that they were, by chance', looking for a Modern Languages specialist. As much for personal convenience and family reasons as anything, he opted for the Manchester library post.

Reg's boss at Manchester was Dr. Fred Ratcliffe. But little did either of them know how important this was to be for Reg's future career. Dr.Ratcliffe was always on the lookout for highly qualified scholar librarians, like Reg, to whom he routinely offered the opportunity to learn the professional skills of librarianship on the job'. Reg worked first in the main University Library building, moving on for a time to the cathedral-like splendour of the John Rylands Library (built by a grieving widow as an everlasting memorial to her wealthy husband). These days, this impressive late-Victorian edifice, built in the Gothic style, houses the University of Manchester's magnificent rare book collections. Reg says he learnt the basics of academic librarianship there, and among the many things that remain with him to this day is the favourite saying of the (then) Head of Reader Services: "To err is human, but to forgive is not library policy"! The saying impressed him then as the very opposite of the kind of user-friendly librarianship he himself wanted to practice Those were the days when book details were stored on cards, and when catalogues were, at best, typed - though many were still handwritten. But modern technology was just putting its head above the parapet; and Reg, far-sightedly, realised that, much as he loved it where he was, if he was to progress in the world of libraries he would have to broaden his experience of library technology, somewhere else.

He applied for, and was offered, a Sub-Librarianship in the new technological University of Surrey, which was known to be ahead of the field in library automation. This brought him to the South of England, and to a very different working environment. Apart from the library's stock being very unlike the great research collections he had known for six years in Manchester, he was to find himself immersed in senior management from day one. But the experience proved invaluable. In due course, in 1978, he took the next logical step, which was to apply for a Deputy Librarian's post. This time the vacancy was at Aston, in Birmingham, where he was offered the job despite a horrendous interview during which he was savaged' by an aggressive professor of Engineering, who refused to accept that a 32 year-old with degrees in French was the right person for such a senior post in a technological university.

The three years that followed were to prove some of the toughest years of Reg's working life. Aston was going through difficult times; and as Deputy Librarian, Reg was plunged into university politics, having to act as go-between, fence- mender and diplomat. He quickly learned about grievance procedures, campus trade unions, and protracted negotiations about resources and working conditions.

He says that the time he spent in Aston was more like working at British Leyland than in a university library! He well remembers that, even on the day he left, he had staff crying on his shoulder Around the same time, too, Reg started to take an active part in wider library affairs, and became known on various national committees - all of which was to stand him in good stead in the future. By 1980 he was itching to get back into a major research library; and when the Deputy Librarianship at Cambridge became vacant he immediately applied for it. His old mentor, Fred Ratcliffe, from his Manchester days, had just been head-hunted to become the Cambridge University Librarian; so, with his valuable experience of technology and library administration, Reg was the obvious choice as Cambridge's number two'. He and Dr.Ratcliffe made a great team, and a rewarding phase of Reg's professional life opened up.

His initiative and creativity were encouraged; the Library at Cambridge was a happy place to work; and Reg still looks back fondly on the early 1980s as idyllic and productive years. Being given a Cambridge Masters degree and adopted by Emmanuel College added gilt to the gingerbread. Reg says he learnt from Dr.Ratcliffe (among many valuable things) how to build library collections, how to fundraise, and how to entertain and win library friends. The Library acquired a remarkable number of major collections during those years, and enjoyed a steady stream of distinguished visitors. And all the time Reg was making good use of his hard-earned experience at Surrey and Aston, including his introduction of Cambridge's first computerised lending system and the extension of its online catalogue. In the mid-80s,too, Reg was encouraged by Dr.Ratcliffe to join forces with James Thompson, the Librarian of Reading, to write a textbook on university library administration. The book was a success, and was even translated into Spanish. "The royalities were very welcome", said Reg, "especially with a large and growing family" (his fourth child was born during the Cambridge years).

In many ways, Reg could have happily stayed on at Cambridge, but Dr.Ratcliffe was ambitious for him. Not for nothing had he earned the nickname of Kingmaker': almost a dozen of his staff at Manchester and Cambridge went on to become University Librarians. "You should be running your own show by now", he told Reg in 1986. And when the University Librarianship at Leeds was advertised, it was FWR' who encouraged Reg to apply for it.

"The rest", as they say, "is history", in that at the age of just 40, Reg found himself appointed as University Librarian in Leeds, where he had worked so hard as a student two decades earlier. And it was in Leeds that Reg was able to draw on all his collected experience for the benefit of his alma mater. The application of library technology, a major building programme, the raising of external funds, enhancing the Library's reputation nationally, and developing the research collections - all these were features of Reg's 10 years in Leeds. The tone of that decade was set very early on when, soon after his arrival, Reg made common cause with the Professor of Modern History to secure for the Library the Liddle Collection of World War I materials - the largest such archive in private hands. Subsequent successes included persuading the popular novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford to donate her literary archive to Leeds. Several years later, too, Reg had the pleasure of presenting BTB' to the Duchess of Kent for an Honorary Doctorate, which she received along with the much-loved Alan Bennett - both of them Leeds born and bred'.

Unification of Oxford Libraries While all this was going on in the North, the University of Oxford was looking for ways to deal with the many problems arising from the lack of coordination in its large and sprawling library system. While many of the larger and older colleges are rich, the central University itself is not, and its library system was becoming an expensive headache to maintain, with more than 40 separate libraries under multiple management. The retirement in 1996 of the then Bodley's Librarian, David Vaisey, gave the University the opportunity to draw up a new job description and give the post a new title: Director of Oxford University Library Services and Bodley's Librarian. This title was to reflect a new brief: to rationalise the central libraries and to bring them under a single professional management. Whether or not Reg Carr was head-hunted for this post seemed to be a question too far', so I did not embarrass him by asking it. Suffice it to say the New Year in 1997 saw him move to Oxford to take up the reigns of office.

The Bodleian is the name of the University's principal research library; but Oxford, with its collegiate system and numerous departments, has dozens of libraries scattered around the city. It has always been perfectly possible for an undergraduate to study and obtain their degree using their college library and a department library without ever stepping inside the Bodleian. Libraries in Oxford form one of the largest areas of the central University's expenditure. Inevitably over the years, with various parts of the University operating as semi-independent states, the bringing together and rationalising of resources was to prove be an operation similar to the unification of Germany in 1871 or Italy in 1860 - it seemed as if the newly appointed Director would need the qualities of Bismarck and Machiavelli all rolled into one. When Reg took up his post, the Bodleian headed a group of 11 libraries which included the Radcliffe Science Library and the Indian Institute Library, to name but two. This year, as he prepares to leave, the integrated Oxford University Library Services group stands at 40.

I suggested that, as Bodley's Librarian he holds one of the Olympian posts in the world of libraries. He replied: "In my view, the best job in the world."

"You must have had offers to go to other libraries?" I asked. He admitted he had. "But nothing could be better than being here. I see this as the pinnacle." He went on to add, "I agree with Michael Beloff when he said in his interview in July that the name Oxford University' opens doors all over the world. On top of that the Bodleian Library is a brand that is known everywhere, and rightly so."

Glancing at framed photographs round his office during this conversation I could not help feeling that family ties must have been, at the very least, an additional reason for staying in Great Britain. Royalty and world leaders took second place to family images. Pride of place is occupied by a four-year old wedding photo of his youngest daughter. I comment on it. "All of the children are married now. Ten grandchildren and two more on the way," he admits proudly.

From Gutenberg Bibles to Google Online I asked Reg what his most interesting challenge had been over the years in Oxford. "Making sure that what is best about the old is preserved. Finding ways to re-interpret and re-purpose Sir Thomas Bodley's vision for his Library in the modern world". Digitisation is part of that re-interpretation. "Sir Thomas could not have imagined the technology; but our 21st-century rationale is the same as his 17th-century one". Reg referred me to the inscription over the main entrance to the Library which is as follows: Quod Feliciter Vortat Academici Oxoniens Bibliothecam Hanc Vobu Republicaeque Literorum T.B.P. "That it might turn out happily Oxonian academics for you and for the republic of lettered men Thomas Bodley placed this Library."

This brought us on to discuss the deal which the Library made in 2004 with Google. As we speak, a team of Google staff are employed on Library premises digitising old books, and they will be doing this for many years to come. "The deal is beneficial to both sides," Reg explains. "Google's mission is to organise the world's information and to make it as widely available as possible. The Bodleian Library exists to organise, store and share information for the benefit of all-comers. We are both engaged on the same work, and Google's funds are helping us to do what we wanted to do but couldn't immediately afford. Win-win is always the best way forward."

I ask the obvious layman's question, "Aren't you shooting yourself in the foot by making all this information available online? Aren't you making the library redundant?" "Not at all. The Internet is a huge shop window for us. Forty thousand people used the University libraries in person last year; but they are the lucky few who are studying in Oxford or who can afford to travel to Oxford. The figure increases every year; but the Internet gives us an audience of billions. It's a question of complementarity' and fitness for purpose'." I asked Reg what he meant by those two phrases. "By complementarity, I mean you may use a computer, but it doesn't mean you won't also write things by hand or read print-on-paper. Fitness for purpose, well, you're demonstrating it now: you're using a pen to take notes. It's the most suitable tool for this situation. But you will use a PC to type them up. Putting our Library materials online means they will be discovered and used more heavily by people we could not otherwise reach. And by such means we'll be able to serve many more users both physically and virtually." He went on to explain that it is not enough simply to house precious manuscripts and old books if they are not easily accessible for research purposes. By copying the information they contain digitally, important materials from the past will be given added value and life.

Golden Memories I asked Reg what, looking back over the ten years, his golden memories would be: "There are so many," he replies. Meeting interesting people, I hazarded. "Yes, one of the most enjoyable visits was from the Empress of Japan. The Emperor and Empress were guests of the Queen and the British Government for a week and during that time they had one free day when they could choose what they wanted to do. The Emperor wanted to visit a fish farm (he is an expert fish breeder), and the Empress asked if she could visit the Bodleian Library with a view to seeing the collections of children's literature. As a writer and illustrator of children's stories herself she had a genuine interest in seeing the books and indeed, behind the scenes, she was a great help in raising money for the purchase of the Opie Collection, one of the Library's most valued collections of children's literature."

He then went on to tell me the story of when he had the privilege of welcoming our own Queen to the Bodleian. She came to the Bodleian's Exhibition Room with the Duke of Edinburgh as part of a major celebration of University College's long history (the Queen is Univ's official Visitor). Reg showed me a photograph of the Queen and himself standing in the Bodleian Quadrangle, capturing the moment when he was explaining to her that she was in the Bodleian, rather than in the College itself, because the College did not have a large enough exhibition space for so many important materials from the its past.

Meeting Nelson Mandela when he came to visit the Library and make a speech in the Convocation House was also a great highlight. Like the Queen, the great statesman was driven to the Bodleian Quadrangle - a rare privilege . The atmosphere when he stepped out of the car and his deep, modulated voice echoed round the ancient stone walls was almost electric. A man with amazing presence and charisma.

"Have you met Bill Clinton?" I asked. "Several times, here and in America" was the answer. I once saw Bill Clinton and the University's late Chancellor, Roy Jenkins, do an amazing double act together here in Oxford. I have fond memories of the two of them. Both great men"

Most Oxford' moment I asked Reg what he had found most different about Oxford by contrast with other places where he had worked. "It was three years into my term of office here," he said. "I had been given this brief to integrate the libraries but no one was telling me how to do it. I had to come up with a plan. It required immense preparation and hard work; but I had a wonderful right-hand man in John Tuck (now at the British Library). He was always there to help me when I was supposed to be in three places at once. And between us we came up with a plan to propose to the University. We spent more than two years consulting about it. But when it came to the University's final decision on what we were proposing (and this is the really unusual part of the story), it all hinged on a meeting of Congregation at which just a handful of objectors could have queried the plan and called for a full vote of all members of the University. Years of hard work rested on what might happen at that meeting. But in the end, because no objections had been raised to what was proposed, the meeting was cancelled, and the library reorganisation proposals were deemed to have been approved'. So success came as a big anti-climax, on a day when nothing happened! It could only be like that in Oxford"

Oxfordshire countryside "Do you think you will move back further North?" I asked "Almost certainly, he answered. "Most of the family are up there. But who could fail to get attached to the Cotswolds, and particularly places like Burford? We often spend time in Woodstock, too; and there are some lovely country houses around here. We love Kelmscott; and as for bigger places, Blenheim Palace and Waddesdon Manor are simply wonderful."

"What is the most exciting book or manuscript you have ever handled?" I asked him. There was a long pause. "There are so many; but if you forced me to pick only one I would have to say the Bodleian's copy of Magna Carta. You only have to think what it meant for England at the time - and in many ways still today."

Gamekeeper turned Poacher I reminded Reg that he had said earlier that, as a former researcher, he well understood the value of access to information. This led me neatly to my next question. Does he have a book in him?

"Oh, Yes," he answered. "I am, at the moment working on a book based on my most recent professional experiences here. It's called The Academic Research Library in a Decade of Change. It will be published by Chandos next year."

"What about a novel?" I prompted. Slightly shyly he admitted that, yes, there is a novel buzzing round in his head. "Can we have a hint of what it will be about?" I asked. "It's historical," he admits (no surprises there then), "it is one of those what if' situations. What if Richard III hadn't been killed at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485? What if he had won the battle? What might England have been like in the 16th century? I'd love to explore that thought."

I had a last wild card' question: "Given the state of public libraries, country ones closing, town and city ones opening for fewer hours and struggling with lack of funds to buy books", I asked Reg, "If you were to be seconded to run Public Libraries in Britain for a year what would you do?" Reg thought about this for a while and answered: "I would only take the job on if I were promised two things: the resources to enhance staff training and the resources for a large publicity campaign to raise awareness about what a good thing libraries are." I asked him if resources' was just a posh word for money. "Yes", he said, "but money spent wisely. I believe in life-long learning. Libraries still have a role to play as places where people of all ages can go for information, for help in finding things out, for communication purposes as well as for pleasure. And public librarians need the skills to help them make the most of the digital age. Their libraries are still a key resource, but they need to be given a much higher profile."

When Sir Thomas Bodley appointed his first librarian, Thomas James, there were only two posts in the Bodleian - the Librarian and his assistant, the Janitor. Today there are 700 staff scattered over Oxford (approximately 400 at the main site). Clearly running an institution like the Bodleian has been a wonderful privilege for Reg Carr, and his name has already been carved in gold letters beneath those of his 22 predecessors since 1600. "Ten years at the top", he concludes: "These have been the very best years of a charmed and fulfilling career. It doesn't come any better than this".

As I left the Library I reflected on the Bodleian legacy: Sir Thomas Bodley had told the University that Bodley's Librarian should be "one that is noted and known for a diligent student, and in all his conversation to be trusty, active, and discreet: a graduate also and a linguist"! Qualities as relevant today as when that list was first compiled.

I couldn't help feeling that if Sir Thomas and I had been having a quick word coming down the stairs he would have said, that Dr Reginald Carr had met all his criteria - in spades! May he have many productive years as a reader, researcher and writer .