Tintin Forums

I just heard today there is a library in Oxford and has every book that is ever been published in England since 1668. Is there a treasure trove of Tintin books there? I would love to go there and see.

It is the Bodleian Library in Oxford University, and it does indeed have every Tintin book ever published in the UK.

However without sounding unfair to you or anybody else (including myself) they don't just let any old riff-raff in off the street.

Oxford students are allowed in, and people doing serious academic study (with permission).

There are five such libraries in the UK, I think, not sure where they all are but one is in Aberystwyth, one in London, etc.

R

jockosjungle wrote: There are five such libraries in the UK I think ...

Jockosjungle is right; the 5 legal deposit libraries in the UK are:
The British Library;
National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh;
Bodleian Library, Oxford;
University Library, Cambridge; and
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

number1fan
Is there a treasure trove of Tintin books there?
They would just be the standard editions, as have been available in the shops, rather than a treasure-trove, per se; the legal deposit part of the title is to do with an Act of Parliament, which allows these libraries to request a copy of every book published within a year of its publication date (the exception is the British Library, which doesn't have to request, it is up to the publisher to send the books).
So perhaps if you wanted to look at something which isn't currently in print (the film books, the Making of... series, Popol), and which tend to be scarce, then it would be really useful; but the bulk of the deposit will be the books as we know them.
As Rik says above, the libraries tend not to be open to the public the way your local lending library would be.
I've got a British Library card, as it happens, for some research I was doing, and you have to be interviewed and provide details of your work to prove that there is a reason for you to access the collection.
You might also want to bear in mind that there is a possibility that a book you want to look at won't be on the site you visit, but held in a depository elsewhere - the Bodleian is very pressed for space, for example, at its main building, and uses storage elsewhere as well as on that site. They'd call it up for you, but you might have to wait.