The Bodleian Libraries offer courses in traditional letterpress, linocut, and making a book, open to the public starting in October, January and May. Bespoke participatory workshops can be arranged throughout the year demonstrating traditional printing for schools, universities and away days.
The main workshop in the Old Bodleian Library holds six hand-operated printing presses and a risograph machine. It is open by appointment and on open days (view PDF map). Contact csb@bodleian.ox.ac.uk for information.
Two presses in the public area of the Weston Library, near the café and exhibition rooms, are operated most weekdays at lunchtimes for drop-in keepsake printing.
Information about any upcoming public courses and workshops is available on the Bodleian's Visit website.
Visits for Higher Education and professional groups may be arranged through the Centre for the Study of the Book. Contact csb@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
The workshop in the Schola Musicae, Old Bodleian Library, is used for practical teaching letterpress printing, and for reconstructions of early printing techniques.
A callout to letterpress printers worldwide for ‘Extracts. Supplied by a sub-sub-librarian,’ from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) resulted in a collaborative and multifaceted new collection in 2019.
The Bodleian Libraries helped artist Tamarin Norwood to create an artwork 38 feet long, with text printed in a single continuous line using the replica 17th-century hand-press at the Weston Library for Special Collections.
