All Souls College intends to elect a full-time Fellow Librarian. The person appointed will be responsible for the stewardship, development, and administration of the College’s research library, including its special collections, and archives. They will ensure that the collections are preserved, accessible, and effectively curated to meet the academic needs of Fellows, readers, and visiting scholars. The Fellow Librarian will be expected to combine scholarly engagement with sound management, sustaining the College’s traditions of learning and research whilst advancing the library’s role in the modern academic environment. The successful candidate will be appointed as an Official Fellow of the College, a member of its Governing Body and a trustee.
About the College
All Souls College was founded in the fifteenth century and today is primarily a research institution with particular strengths in the humanities and social and theoretical sciences and an outstanding library. It is a constituent member of the University of Oxford. Although its Fellows are involved in teaching and the supervision of research, there are no undergraduate members.
As of October 2025, there are eighty-seven Governing Body Fellows of All Souls, two Honorary Fellows, twenty-four Visiting Fellows and thirty-three Emeritus Fellows. Of the Governing Body Fellows, forty-six are academics entirely funded by All Souls, sixteen are academics with Oxford University positions attached to All Souls, and the rest include academics at other universities, non-academics (e.g. barristers), former Fellows who have attained distinction in public life, and the College Chaplain, Fellow Librarian and Bursars.
The All Souls College Library and Archives
The Library dates from the College’s foundation in the fifteenth century. The striking grade 1 listed building that houses the Library was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and built in the eighteenth century, partially with money donated by Christopher Codrington, a former Fellow of the College.
Today the Library houses around 200,000 volumes, about a third of which were printed before 1800. There is also a fine collection of Wren architectural drawings and particularly strong modern collections in law, history, and military history/strategic studies. The College Archive is a rich, broad and varied collection of material relating to the College and its estates dating from the twelfth century to the present day. It includes medieval charters, injunctions and other legal deeds along with a broad range of written materials, as well as textiles, artefacts, and digital records.
The College recently commissioned an external report on the management of its Library and Archives. Several recommendations addressing improvements to governance, strategy, policy, facilities and overall management, including the creation of this position, were received and accepted by the College. An early priority for the new Fellow Librarian will be to develop a plan and lead the implementation of these recommendations.
Informal inquiries are welcome and should be made in the first instance to Steve Evans, the College’s Domestic Bursar at: domestic.bursar@all-souls.ox.ac.uk.
The deadline for applications is 12 noon (UK time), Friday 5 December 2025.
Further details of the role and how to apply can be found on the College website.