Second Lady visits the Bodleian library in UK

The Second Lady, Mrs. Matilda Amissah Arthur visited the Bodleian library in UK, prior to delivering a lecture on the theme ‘Education and mentoring: the mainstay of personal and national development” in the evening at the Harris Manchester College.

The Bodleian is one of the great libraries of the world and is a working library which forms part of the University of Oxford that was first opened to scholars in 1602.

Mrs. Matilda Amissah Arthur a Professional Librarian and a former president of Ghana Library association with a passion for reading and impacting knowledge to the youth of Ghana, was briefed on her arrival at the Library.

With the leadership and permission of Mr. Richard Ovenden the Bodley’s Librarian who has made sure that the Bodleian Libraries have taken huge strides in recent years, Mrs. Matilda Amissah Arthur was told the story of the Bodleian library before she started her tour on how the great Library incorporated into an earlier library erected by the University in the fifteenth century to house books donated by Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester.

The library holds millions of printed items as well as manuscripts. She was also shown the interior of the buildings that forms the historic heart of the University by the guide, described the wonderful architecture, explained how the University came into being in the Middle Ages, and how it developed over the centuries.

Touring the library, Mrs. Matilda Amissah Arthur admired with rapt attention the briefings, especially issues of conservation and preservation, and of exploiting the possibilities offered by digitization to make key texts more widely available, especially in developing countries.

The Library had reading rooms and generations of famous scholars who have studied through the ages, among them were five kings, 40 Nobel Prize winners, 26 prime ministers and writers including Oscar Wilde, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.

The Library is located in a remarkable group of buildings which forms the historic heart of the University of Oxford, and has quadrangles and magnificent structures with beautiful and historic interiors, which have intricate painted and carved ceilings.