Using the Library

Registration

Cards are automatically registered for borrowing at the start of MT. Your University Card will give you physical access to the Library space. Please give it time to register the first time you access the Lbrary.

Borrowing, renewing & returning books

You can borrow, renew and return books using the self-service kiosk in the Library located in the Jessup Room. You can borrow twenty books. Books are renewed or returned at the beginning and end of each term.  (Wednesdays of 0th week and 10th week). You can borrow books over the vacations. You can use the “My Account” function on SOLO to manage your loans.  A Lost Books Charge of £50 is imposed one month (29 days) after the books due date. Automated reminders are sent to your University email address. If you are unable to borrow a book at the self-service kiosk please complete a sign-out slip, place it in the box provided and email library@wolfson.ox.ac.uk. These can be found next to the shelf-service kiosk.

Please look after the books in your possession and do not deface them in any way.

Working in the Library

The Library is a shared working space.  Our desks are on a first come, first served basis. You can bring in water in a sports bottle and hot drinks in a keep cup but food and other drinks are prohibited. Conversations should be held outside the Library spaces.

Catalogues

  SOLO gives you access to the University's catalogue and those of most college libraries, as well as access to e-resources.

Here is a  Guide to Using SOLO.

Book suggestions

We welcome your suggestions for books to purchase for the Library.  Please use the   Book Suggestion Form.  When you make a request, the Librarian will inform you about the decision to purchase the book. The Library does not usually buy physical copies of books that are available as permanent e-copies on SOLO.  You can check SOLO to see if your book is “On order”, “In Processing” or “Available”.   A member of the Library Team will email you when your book is ready for loan. Please get in touch with the Librarian if you have any queries about your book requests.

Study Carrels

Individual study carrels are allocated for the year prior to the start of Michaelmas Term. More information on carrels  is here:   Library Carrels.

Lockers are also available for the short-term storage of your possessions.Casual carrels can be booked via the   WolfHub.  

Rooms are available for online classes, supervisions and examinations. These should be booked  with The Events Office.

Computers in the Library

We have Macs and PCs in the Library for your use. You can log on to our workstations using your Oxford Single Sign On. The  IT facilities pages offer full information on IT support available in College. 

Printing, Scanning and Photocopying

Printers are available in the Library Breakout Space and the Library. Readers should use the remote printing option.  Printing. The cost of printing is billed to your battels. You require a current university card for this service.

Libraries Portal

The Bodleian Libraries comprise 30 libraries including Oxford's major research libraries, and most of the libraries embedded in Oxford faculties and departments. Follow the links below for further information:

 Bodleian Humanities Libraries

 Bodleian Science Libraries

 Bodleian Social Sciences Libraries

Subject Portal

Subject guides can help you find the right library for your study and research library, or contact your subject Librarian, and find resources.

 Subject Guides A-Z

  Special Collections

Manuscripts, archives, rare books and printed ephemera

The Weston Library provides access to a great wealth of Special Collections which support research in many different fields. Holdings range from early papyrus manuscript fragments to modern digital archives, as well as significant collections of rare books and printed ephemera, in languages from Aramaic to English to Urdu.

Maps (cartographic materials)

The Bodleian Map Room holds an international collection of over 1 million maps, both current and historical. Follow the link above for information about finding aids to help you find and use maps and related materials.

Music

The Bodleian Library’s Music collection is one of the largest and most important in the country. Follow the link above for information on how to locate music materials for consultation in the Weston Library. For a general overview of the history and scope of the Music collection, see the Weston's Music web site.

 Specialist Materials Portal

Data and Statistics

Images and Films

 Here are a number guides to help you find and use visual collections held by the Bodleian Libraries:

Films, information on using fim collections,  Finding Images guidance on image databases and collections and the Visual Resources Centre (based in the Department of History of Art)  which contains over 90,000 35mm slides of art and architecture from classical antiquity to the present day; a rare collection of over 65,000 glass lantern slides from the nineteenth and early twentieth century and a number of photographic collections.

  Legal Materials

The Bodleian Law Library holds a wide range of legal materials from around the world including legislation, treaties, case law and legal texts.

Official Papers: Parliamentary, Departmental and International Intergovernmental papers

The Official Papers collection consists of: parliamentary papers and proceedings of the UK Parliament dating from the 16th century to present day; papers and proceedings of the devolved assemblies, Scottish Parliament and the Republic of Ireland; an excellent collection of departmental publications; principal collections of many international organisation, notably the Library has depository library status for the UN, ICAO and the ILO.

USA Government Publications

Guidance on US government publications held in Oxford (mostly in the Vere Harmsworth Library) and available online, both for current and historic information. Includes Legislative/Congressional Resources; Executive/Presidency Resources; Foreign Relations; Censuses/Statistics

 Newspapers

A guide to historical and current newspapers and news sources, covering the 17th to 21st centuries. Includes searching tips, outline common problems and lists key resources available to Oxford scholars.

Patents are are useful source of technical information and a source for intellectual property rights

Theses This guide provides advice on how to find and use theses and dissertations from the University of Oxford, other UK institutions and around the world.

 E-books

Access over 1.4 million e-books via SOLO. Filter results by Online Resources to find e-books that can be accessed offsite – look for the green online access icon. Some e-books are restricted to current members of the Uiversity. Find information about alumni access here.

The Bod LibGuide for e-books has details of new resources as they become available including helpful advice for accessing them and getting the best use out of the text. 

There are LibGuides available for all subjects highlighting the existing e-resources and new ones too. New resources are being added all the time so re-check from time-to-time to see if something you need has become available.

E-journals
Access over 118,000 e-journal titles via SOLO. Filter results by Online Resources to show resources that can be accessed offsite – look for the green online access icon. Also now available is BrowZine:  a streamlined access to online journals either directly from SOLO, via the BrowZine app or website or Chrome extension.   LibGuide to Browzine. Some e-books are restricted to current members of the Uiversity. Find information about alumni access here.

 Databases
Access over 1,300 databases across a broad range of subject areas. Visit  Databases A-Z or search SOLO.   These provide full text access to books chapters,  conference proceedings, articles.

  ORA and other institutional Repositories

 The Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) is  an archive of research materials produced by members of the University of Oxford from all disciplines (Humanities, Maths, Physical & Life Sciences, Medical Sciences and Social Sciences . It provides a single point of public access to electronic copies of peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, working papers, reports, book sections and unpublished  academic work and theses by Oxford authors. The full text and abstracts of many items within the archive can be downloaded free of charge by anyone with an Internet connection and new full texts are being added daily.

Repositories such as ORA are becoming commonplace in HE institutions Readers can search and access material from the Institutional repositories of other universities  (UK, International).

  Oxford Reading Lists Online
Explore reading lists for a selection of courses across all divisions on ORLO, with access to scanned book chapters where available.

 Open Access

Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge including for those who do not have personal or institutional subscriptions to journals, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.  

   ISkills

These workshops focus on information skills and resources across a wide range of disciplines.  They are primarily aimed at University of Oxford students and staff  These are continuing to be offered through a combination of webinars and pre-recorded videos.  Please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you are an external reader wishing to attend any of our workshops.  

 Reference Management

This guide is intended for researchers, staff and students at the University of Oxford seeking support in reference management.

Use this guide to find tips on managing your references and software available to support your management of references.

Digital Bodleian

Search and explore the Bodleian's collections on Digital Bodleian, with over 900,000 images of c.16,000 collection items.

  Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.         

Google Books

Google Books is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database

    Project Gutenberg

 Project Gutenberg offers over 53,000 free ebooks. It is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, and most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public-domain books.