On Thursday I went on a tour of the Bodleian Library with Danalisa & Jodi as part of the Newcomer's Club. I've heard several accounts as to the exact status of the library. It may be the world's oldest English language library. It also may be one of the oldest libraries in the world, or one of the oldest in Europe. Regardless, it was first built in the 1400s as Duke Humfrey's Library. 
The first floor took over 50 years to build, as the master craftsman who built it was very particular and took his time building the first 3 walls of the building - so much so that he died before finishing the job. Today, you can see where he left off - the side where you walk in near the information desk is much less ornate than the rest. However, after the original builder died, there was no money left to continue construction of the building and so Thomas Kemp, Bishop of London acted as a fundraiser for the building, ensuring that its construction would be completed. Thus, the impressive vaulted ceiling is not only beautiful, but also acts as a record of donors - the family crests of donors adorn the peaks of the ceiling (Kemp's wheat sheaf theme is all over the place). The building was used as the examination room for centuries. Two students were examined orally at the same time, in latin, and the public was invited to watch - talk about pressure!You can see a really neat virtual tour of the room here:
http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/panoofweek/divinityschool2-360.html
So why is the library called Bodleian? The original library established by Duke Humfrey went into great decline, but was later expanded by Sir Thomas Bodley around 1600. Bodley was a collector of books, and collected over 3,000 books from around the world with which to stock the library. So Duke Humfrey still gets credit for one room (no photography allowed), and Bodley gets credit for the whole shebang. The Humfrey library is really interesting to see. As the library was built well before electricity, and open flames were not permitted in the building, the bookshelves are arranged so that each is next to a window. So why wouldn't students just go take the books to a sunny corner to read? Well, the wood-covered books were chained to the shelf! And I thought that having the Business school library close at 11pm was bad! Many of the original books are there - I saw one from 1532!
Another interesting room we saw was the Convocation House, where traditionally convocation has taken place. The room has a really beautiful fan ceiling (see picture on left). Parliament at Westminster was modeled after this room, just scaled up to fit more people. The two sides of seats are separated by "one arm, one sword and six inches" to the center of the room. This is because the men who would meet here brought swords with them, and should any attempt to take a jab at the opposing side, a safe distance was kept. I made sure before I left to get a picture of me sitting in the chair where the king would have sat long ago. 
The podium in front of the chair swivels forward on a spring so that a fat king would be able to get in and out of the fancy chair easily.
The rest of the tour was in the Radcliffe Camera (a round library) and through underground shelf/storage areas for the Bodleian. The camera building used to be open on the first floor. Students would enter from the bottom of the building, then climb up the stairs to the actual library - the books were kept upstairs to avoid the damp found on the ground floor. I highly recommend taking a guided tour of the Bodleian library if you find yourself in Oxford. While the buildings are beautiful, the history is fascinating - I've only recalled a small portion of what I was told on my tour!
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Oxford's endowment was dwarfed by that of Harvard and other US universities. It raised only £58 million from donations and investments in 2002/03, compared to £262 million at Harvard and £250 million in Stanford.
The Times , 25th January 2005. Letters follow
With their generous alumni and high endowments, US universities are enviously regarded in Britain
Kamal Ahmed in London and Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday December 1, 2002
The Observer
Harvard and the other seven universities that form the United States Ivy League are being held up as a blueprint for the likes of Oxford and Cambridge to follow.
It has long been a dream of the UK's university leaders to form their own version of the Ivy League. Called the Russell Group, after the hotel in Russell Square, London, where the first meeting of leading institutions was held to discuss the plans, it includes Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Bristol, Imperial College, London, and Durham.
The Government has long had an obsession with the Ivy League. Ed Balls, Gordon Brown's chief economic adviser, studied at Harvard, as did David Miliband, former head of the Number 10 Policy Unit and now Minister for Schools. Brown himself is a keen fan of America.
Mervyn King, the new Governor of the Bank of England, also studied at Harvard and Miliband's younger brother, Ed, who also works for the Chancellor, is working there at the moment
In 2000-01, Harvard raised more than £18 billion (£11.6bn) in endowments, compared to £661m at Cambridge. Yale raised $11bn (£7.1bn) compared with £472m at Oxford.
Even smaller non Ivy League US universities such as Boston and Pittsburgh have endowments worth more than $1bn (£642m) a year. In comparison Leeds raised £60m and Exeter £10m.
'We can learn a great deal from the way in which many US universities have established substantial endowments,' says Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary.
According to research carried out by the Sutton Trust, Oxford and Cambridge receive endowments of only £120,000 per student, sums that are dwarfed by contributions of £812,500 a year to Princeton or £550,300 to Harvard.
By John Redwood
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 14/11/2006
Oxford Endowment a quarter of Harvard’s
One hundred years ago, the British assumed an easy superiority, as they presided over the largest empire the world had seen. Britain led in engineering and education, in the power of its navy and the sagacity of its judges, in the vigour of its Parliament and in the strength of its economy
One hundred years later, we have met our match in so many of these areas. America has eclipsed us in education and as a military superpower. Many countries have replaced the workshop of the world and now excel at engineering. Many countries have sent skyscrapers soaring, leaving our tallest buildings looking like dwarves among giants
If our great universities wish to adapt to a world where so many more graduates will be coming from India and China, if they wish to keep up or catch up with Harvard, Ivy League and other leading American institutions, if they wish to attract and retain the very best talent among faculty members and students as they are used to doing, they will need to modernise.
Oxford's endowment is now only a quarter of Harvard's. That means Harvard can offer more to recruit and retain the very best scholars in the world.
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