The Queen's College, Oxford, is going underground to create a new library extension below one of the college's gardens.

Like the Bodleian, Queen's has run out of space for its ever-growing collection of books and journals.

So the college, in High Street, has come up with a radical solution, with plans to build underneath the Provost's garden.

The underground extension would be linked to the college's 17th century library, which the college plans to substantially refurbish.

A skylight will allow the building to be lit primarily by sunlight, as well as offering new views of the west facade of the old library.

A college spokesman said: "The once fine Lower Library is now a shadow of its former self.

"Additional bookshelves and reader spaces have been added over the years to try to increase both reading and storage space.

"The result is an overcrowded and ill-lit environment where there is insufficient room not only for the collection but also for readers."

The college said that its antiquarian collection was also being put at risk through being stored in unsuitable conditions.

Heating and hot water pipes run above priceless collections of early printed books, the college said.

A planning application will go before the city council's central, south and west area committee on Tuesday.

An officer's report found the scheme to be in accord with the "special character, setting, features of special architectural and historic interest of the listed building".

The Bodleian Library, which had wanted to move millions of books to a new depository on the Osney Mead industrial estate, was recently refused planning permission for the plan, because of concerns over possible flooding problems and the impact the proposed building could have on views of Oxford from the west.

Limited space and ever-expanding book collections means the idea of underground libraries could be increasingly common in the centre of Oxford in the coming years.

One of the key elements in the university's plans for the £500m development of the Radcliffe Infirmary site is a large two-floor library built underground, with an entrance at a large crescent-shaped glass wall on the northern side of the site.