Plans for the major £78m restoration and refurbishment of Oxford's New Bodleian Library have been given the green light by the local authority.

Oxford City Council (OCC) has approved planning permission and listed building consent for the scheme, which has been put forward by Oxford University's Bodleian Library. Designs drawn up by London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects aim to create new storage space for the libraries' collection, to support advanced research and increase public access to the facility.

Work is due to get underway in 2011 following the removal of more than 3.5 million books. The New Bodleian Library will be reopened as the Weston Library once the scheme is completed in 2015. The Garfield Weston Foundation has contributed £25m towards the revamp of the Grade II-listed facility, which was originally designed by Giles Gilbert Scott and first opened in 1940.

Sarah Thomas, Bodley's librarian, said: "We've worked to ensure that the redeveloped building would appeal to academics and scholars but also would contribute to the city as an inviting space to share the Bodleian's treasures, in dedicated exhibition galleries, with the general public."