William Buckland Room. The basement room was converted for use as a committee room in 1988 when bookcases were installed to house the library's collection of rare books. The Rev. William Buckland was a fellow of the Royal Society (1818) and Professor of Mineralogy at the University of Oxford. He became Oxford's first reader in Geology (1819) and was president of the Geological Society from 1824-26, when the Society obtained its Royal Charter.