Fully booked: Bodleian's new store

A £26 million warehouse to store 8.4 million books and maps was unveiled yesterday after one of the UK's most famous libraries ran out of space.

The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, entitled to a copy of every book published in the UK, was running out of space with the situation becoming "desperate", head librarian Dr Sarah Bodley said. The Book Storage Facility near Swindon, with 153 miles of shelving, has enough space to support the libraries for the next 20 years.