Edward Williams Byron Nicholson spent thirty years of his working life, from 1882 to 1912, in the envied position of librarian at the Bodleian Library, where he was active in preparing that heart of the University of Oxford for the twentieth century. He was always full of new ideas and enthusiasms, often espousing the latest American "fads," to the frequent dismay of his colleagues, but he achieved much, particularly in the areas of staff training, cataloguing, and expanding the holdings, despite financial constraints. But, like the awkward public library pioneer Edward Edwards, who frequently quarreled with his employers and was actually dismissed by Nicholson (through no fault of either), Nicholson increasingly alienated his employers and his own staff. He must also be remembered for being the initiator of the International Conference of Librarians, which led directly to the foundation of the Library Association of the United Kingdom in 1877. As was...