PART of one of the world's most famous libraries is to be turned into a police office.

The Bodleian Library will house Oxford University's four new dedicated police community support officers.

The university is helping to pay for the Pcsos to patrol its colleges and departments across the city. They will take up their duties on Monday, April 21, making them the university's first police officers in its 900-year history.

To make sure they are close to the areas they will patrol, an office is being provided in the 400-year-old library's Clarendon Building, in Broad Street.

Police spokesman Victoria Brandon said: "An area at the Bodleian has been identified where the PCSOs can have a computer terminal and act as a base so they do not have to keep going back to St Aldate's police station.

"The process has to be agreed by relevant people for this to happen."

Oxford University is funding half of the cost of the PCSOs - about £120,000 - for the next four years.

It is the first time an arm of the police has been deployed to keep order at the university.

PCSOs do not have the power of arrest, but can issue fixed penalty notices for disorder, detain a suspect for up to 30 minutes, dispose of alcohol, carry out road checks and seize illegal vehicles.

A university spokesman said: "They will use some space at the Clarendon Building, part of the Bodleian Library, because that is the premises of the principal proctor's officer, who works with security at the university. But their main base will be at St Aldate's police station."

Their main role will be to collect information and intelligence for police officers and maintain a visible presence in university grounds They will also be used to patrol university's properties and police high-profile visits.