Richard Ovenden is Bodley’s Librarian & the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries (the senior executive officer of the Bodleian Libraries) and is responsible for their strategic oversight. He holds this post together with being Head of Gardens, Libraries & Museums (GLAM).

Richard has held positions at Durham University Library, the House of Lords Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the University of Edinburgh. He moved to the Bodleian in 2003 as Keeper of Special Collections, becoming Deputy Librarian in 2011. He was educated at the University of Durham and University College London, and holds a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a Member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019.

Richard serves as President of the Digital Preservation Coalition, and as a member of the Advisory Council of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, based in Berlin. He has written extensively on the history of the book, on the history of photography, and on current concerns in the library, archive and information worlds.