Richard Ovenden OBE is the 25th Bodley’s Librarian (since the post was set up in 1600) at the Bodelian Library in Oxford, a post he holds together with being Head of Gardens, Libraries, & Museums (GLAM), and the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries (the senior executive officer of the Bodleian Libraries). He was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2019. He is an active researcher, his recent book Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under Attack was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize in 2021. He holds a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College.

Image © John Cairns