Resources blog end-of-year round-up

For those who don't already know, in addition to this blog for library news and information, we maintain a second blog at vhlresources.blogspot.com which focuses on sources available both here in Oxford and elsewhere for those studying the United States. If you haven't been following already, here's a round-up of posts over there this year:

• Finding primary sources on the web for US history: some tips
• "Access to presidential paper and records in the presidential libraries": guest post by DPhil candidate Patrick Sandman, reporting on a talk given at the RAI by Nancy Smith, Director of the Presidential Materials Division at the National Archives of the United States.
• The Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive, including a video of a talk by Professor Philip Davies, Director of the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library and donor of the archive held at the VHL.
• Elections resources on the web
• New sites saved on our delicious page

More to come in 2013, including posts on the new electronic resources we acquired in the summer.

New digital microfilm scanner available

An early Christmas present for those of you who use our microfilm collections: we now have a very fancy new digital microfilm scanner available in the library.  The more observant of you may have already seen it in the library (or indeed, tried it out already), as it was installed a few weeks ago, but we have now got it all set up for use and can officially announce its presence.

This new scanner will read microfilms, microfiche and microcards and make digital copies which can be saved as PDFs. It is not currently possible to print directly from the scanner, but the images can be saved onto a USB drive for transfer to a laptop or another library computer and from there printed via PCAS.

A guide to how to use the scanner and its various functions is available in the library.

SOLO downtime: Monday 10th December

SOLO and OxLIP+ will be unavailable for several hours this evening (starting at 6pm), due to server maintenance.

If you need to find books in the VHL after 6pm today, please ask the member of staff on duty as we will still have access to the staff side of the library system. You can also always search Mobile Oxford or COPAC to find Oxford holdings, or check shelfmarks in the Library of Congress online catalogue, as we use the same shelving system.

SOLO and OxLIP+ should be up and running again by tomorrow morning.

Christmas vacation opening hours

Over the Christmas vacation, the library will be open Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm only. We will be open this Saturday (1st December), but thereafter will be closed on Saturdays until Hilary Term.

The library will be closed from 5pm on Friday 21st December through to 9am on Wednesday 2nd January.

Please note, for those with borrowing privileges, we do not offer vacation loans. All books borrowed will continue to have their regular due dates throughout the Christmas vacation, with the exception of our closed period over Christmas and New Year.

Parliament Week at the Bodleian

The VHL has contributed to the Bodleian's participation in Parliament Week this year, in collaboration with the Conservative Party Archive, held at the Bodleian. While Parliament Week is a UK focused initiative, we discovered an interesting crossover between the CPA and the VHL's Philip & Rosamund Davies Elections Archive. The CPA contains material relating to Conservative Party operatives travelling to the United States to observe and comment on US elections, most notably in 1956 and 1980, which we have been able to supplement and expand upon from our archive.

• US and UK Elections I: Exploring elections
• US and UK Elections II: Exploring elections, part two (Conventions and ephemera)

To see the rest of the Bodleian's Parliament Week coverage for 2012, visit the Bodleian website. And don't forget you can find out more about the VHL's Elections Archive at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/vhl/collections/elections-archive.

Fastcase: new American legal resource

Thanks to the Bodleian Law Library, Oxford now has access to Fastcase, a database of, and portal to, primary sources of US law both federal and state level. Federal case library includes US Supreme Court from (1 US 1 to current), All Federal Circuit Cases (1 F 2d 1 to current), and all District (1 F. Supp. 1 – Current ) and Bankruptcy Courts (1 B.R. 1 – Current ) It also includes constitutions, legislation and cases (the last from at least 1950 onwards) for all 50 states.

Fastcase may be accessed via SOLO/OxLIP+.

WISER coming up: data, images and reference management

Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running workshops on data, images and reference management.   Also don’t forget that this Friday we’ll be running WISER: Searching Online News Sources.

WISER: Searching online news sources (Fri 16 Nov 10.15 – 12.15) (wk 6)
News sources are primary resources for researching contemporary political and social issues. This session will provide an overview of the key resources and hands-on exercises with databases such as Nexis UK, Factiva, and Proquest.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics
Presenter: Mark Janes > Book Now

WISER: Social science data services (Tues 20 Nov 2.00 – 4.00) (wk 7) 
Social science data services provide archives of data for use by researchers and students. The session will provide an overview of the available services and exercises with the Economic and Social Data Service and ICPSR.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics
Presenter: Mark Janes > Book Now

ARTstor and Bridgeman: using images in teaching and learning (Tuesday 20 Nov 2.00-4.00) (wk 7)
The course examines two major digital image collections subscribed to by the University - ARTstor and Bridgeman Education - geared to research and teaching in the humanities, history of science and medicine, and social sciences. Viewing, presenting and managing images are also covered.
Who is this session for? All members of Oxford University
Presenters: Clare Hills Nova and Vicky Brown > Book Now

WISER: Tech Tools - Reference Management (Wed 21 Nov 2.00 – 5.00) (wk 7)
Keeping track of your references and formatting them correctly for your thesis or publication is a chore. Reference management software makes it easy and is worth investigating. This introductory session gives an overview of how it works and the pros and cons of RefWorks, EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics
Presenters: Ljilja Ristic, Oliver Bridle and Angela Carritt > Book Now

Research Skills Toolkit
An introduction to 10 key IT and information tools and skills for research students in a hands on workshop run jointly by IT Services and Bodleian Libraries. Sample topics include: reference management, keeping up to date, finding articles and papers, Excel pivot tables, finding and managing images,  podcasting, Word for your thesis and measuring research impact.   
Who is this session for? Postgraduates  
>  Check dates for your subject and book your place

Keeping up with Bodleian Libraries training opportunities: Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com.

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

Questions? - Please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

WISER coming up: E-books, News sources, and Research Skills Toolkit

Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running workshops on searching online news sources, finding and manipulating academic e-books and using e-book readers.

WISER: E-Books (Tuesday 13 November 2.00 – 3.00) (wk 6) -   This session will introduce Oxford’s collection of e-books, helping you not only to successfully locate e-books but also to manipulate them and make the most of their functionality.
Who is this session for? All members of Oxford University.   Presenters:  Hilla Wait and Jo Gardner.  > Book Now

WISER: E-Book Readers (Tuesday 13 November 3.15 – 4.15) (wk 6) - How useful are e-book readers in academic work? Can they be used for accessing library materials? What are the features to look out for when considering purchase? These and similar questions will be considered with reference to the i-Pad, the Amazon Kindle and Sony Touch e-readers and smart phones.  
Who is this session for? All members of Oxford University and other Bodleian Libraries readers  Presenters:  Hilla Wait and Jo Gardner > Book now

WISER: Searching online news sources (Fri 16 Nov 10.15 – 12.15) (wk 6) - News sources are primary resources for researching contemporary political and social issues. This session will provide an overview of the key resources and hands-on exercises with databases such as Nexis UK, Factiva, and Proquest.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics.    Presenter: Mark Janes > Book Now

Research Skills Toolkit – An introduction to 10 key IT and information tools and skills for research students in a hands on workshop run jointly by IT Services and Bodleian Libraries. Sample topics include: reference management, keeping up to date, finding articles and papers, Excel pivot tables, finding and managing images,  podcasting, Word for your thesis and measuring research impact.    Who is this session for? Postgraduates   >  Check dates for your subject and book your place

Keeping up with Bodleian Libraries training opportunities: Why not follow join our mailing list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com.

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

Questions? - Please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Take the Bodleian Libraries 2012 reader survey

By now you should have received an e-mail asking you to assist in assessing the quality of our library services by filling out a Web-based survey.  If you have already completed the survey, thank you!   If you have not yet filled out the survey, please take a few minutes to go to URL below and help us in this important endeavour by taking the survey.  Only you can tell us how well we are serving your library needs.  Please complete the survey no later than 16th November

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/libqual-survey

When you complete the survey, please respond by giving your assessment of our services based on the Bodleian Libraries library that you use most frequently (you’ll be asked to specify this as part of the survey).  Please use the survey comments box if you have feedback on other Bodleian sites or on the Bodleian Libraries generally.

Please complete the survey even if you rarely visit one of our libraries - the survey also covers feedback on our extensive range of online services such as our electronic journal collections.

Don’t forget to key in your e-mail address at the end of the survey if you want to enter the draw for an opportunity to win an iPad or one of five £30 Amazon vouchers.

Full access to ProQuest Congressional now available *until end of November*

We now have full access to the complete collection of congressional publications via ProQuest for the month of November. ProQuest have opened up their full collections to institutions in this way to coincide with the US Elections, and this gives Oxford readers an opportunity to make use of collections we don't normally have access to.

As well as the Congressional Record, you can now access committee prints and hearings from 1817-, and Congressional Research Service Reports from 1916-. In addition, the full Serial Set is now also searchable via the ProQuest platform as well as through our usual access via Readex. All these collections may be cross-searched.

We only have this access for the month of November, so be sure to make full use of it by the end of the month. From December we will revert to our subscribed access to the Congressional Record only via ProQuest, and the Serial Set only via Readex.

To access the collections, search OxLIP+ for the Congressional Record, or go directly to http://congressional.proquest.com. Remote access should be available for University members if you have signed in to SOLO/OxLIP+ first.

Now available: The Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive

A century of presidential campaign buttons, 1908-2008

The Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive, which was donated to the VHL by Professor Philip Davies (Director, Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library), has now been fully catalogued and can be made available to researchers. The archive is an extensive collection of campaign ephemera from US elections at all levels, and comprises a wide range of material, from buttons, posters, bumper stickers, flyers and leaflets to more unusual examples of campaign ephemera such as t-shirts, caps, dolls, rain bonnets, jewellery, bars of soap, playing cards and commemorative plates. The majority of the material dates from the later 20th century onwards, but there are examples of older items such as 19th and early 20th century campaign buttons, and ballots from the Civil War era. The archive continues to grow as Professor Davies actively collects and donates material from each round of elections in the United States.

The archive catalogue can now be viewed online. If you are interested in consulting material from this collection please contact jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

For more information about the archive, as well as links to images and a video of Professor Davies discussing the role of campaign ephemera, please see http://vhlresources.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-philip-rosamund-davies-us-elections.html

Selected items from the archive are on display in the library until after the November 6th elections.

Research Skills Toolkit and WISER coming up: Finding stuff and Theses

Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running workshops on finding conferences, theses and dissertations. In addition our workshop “your thesis, copyright and ORA” covers everything Oxford DPhils need to know about preparing your thesis for ORA.   

This bulletin also includes details of this year’s Research Skills Toolkits.

WISER: Finding Stuff – Conferences (Tues 23 Oct 3.30 – 4.30) (wk 3)
Conference papers can be tricky to find but are very valuable because they describe cutting-edge research. This session will enable you to find forthcoming conferences in your field and also to locate the published papers of proceedings which have taken place.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics.
Presenters: James Shaw and Sue Bird > Book Now

WISER: Your thesis, copyright and ORA (Wed 24 Oct 3.45 – 5.00) (wk 3)
Repeated Mon 29 Oct 12.30 – 13.30 (week 4)
Oxford DPhil students are required to deposit a copy of their thesis in ORA (Oxford University Research Archive). This session will focus on copyright and other issues that DPhil students need to take into account when preparing and writing their thesis so that they do not encounter problems when they deposit.  DPhils are encouraged to attend this session early so that they can make sensible decisions regarding rights from the start of their research.
Who is this session for? Research Postgraduates who are required to write a thesis
Presenter: Catherine Goudie > Book Now

WISER: Finding Stuff – Theses and Dissertations (Fri 26 Oct 10.45 – 12.00) (wk 3)
This session will help you to find theses submitted at Oxford and in other institutions in the UK and overseas.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics.
Presenter: Angela Carritt and Craig Finlay > Book Now

Research Skills Toolkit
An introduction to 10 key IT and information tools and skills for research students in a hands on workshop run jointly by IT Services and Bodleian Libraries. Sample topics include: reference management, keeping up to date, finding articles and papers, Excel pivot tables, finding and managing images,  podcasting, Word for your thesis and measuring research impact.   
Who is this session for? Postgraduates
Check dates for your subject and book your place

Keeping up with Bodleian Libraries training opportunities: Why not follow join our mailing list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com.

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

Questions? - Please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Two seminars on the Presidential Libraries next week

The Rothermere American Institute is hosting two seminars on the Presidential Library system on Tuesday 16th October, to which VHL readers are warmly invited. Both are being given by Nancy Smith, the Director of the Presidential Materials Division at the US National Archives.

Informal Postgraduate Seminar: Access to Presidential Papers and Records in the Presidential Libraries
Tuesday 16th October, 11.30am-12.30pm

American History Research Seminar: Escorting a Presidency into History: The National Archives and Presidential Transitions
Tuesday 16th October, 4.00pm-6.00pm
 

WISER coming up: Finding stuff

Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running workshops on finding journal articles for your research and using SOLO to locate library items in print and online. More details below:

WISER: Finding Stuff - Books etc on SOLO (Wed 17 Oct 2.00 - 3.00) (wk 2)
An introduction to SOLO for finding books, journal titles and other materials in Oxford libraries. The session will cover effective search techniques, placing hold requests for items in the stacks, reservations and using the SOLO eshelf and saved searches.
Who is this session for? All members of Oxford University and other Bodleian Libraries readers.
Please book your place online at http://courses.it.ox.ac.uk/detail/TZWA
This session will be repeated Tues 23 Oct 2.00 - 3.00 (wk 3)

WISER: Finding Stuff - Journal Articles (Wed 17 Oct 3.00 - 4.15) (wk 2)
This session will focus on finding journal articles for your research using a wide range of databases as well as developing effective search strategies. There will be plenty of time for participants to try out their own searches using databases for their subject.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics.
Please book your place online at http://courses.it.ox.ac.uk/detail/TZW3
This session will be repeated: Friday 26 October 9.30 - 10.45 (wk 3)

Want to see the full workshops timetable? See http://www.libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops

Keeping up with Bodleian Libraries training opportunities: Why not join our mailing list by sending an empty email towiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

Questions? - Please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Induction tour for new graduates - Thursday 11th October, 10am

We'll be offering a tour of the library for new graduates at 10am on Thursday 11th October. If you are a new DPhil or Masters student working on US history or politics, do come along and find out more about the VHL.

Scan & deliver

The Bodleian Libraries' new Scan & Deliver service allows you to request scans of sections (eg, articles/chapters) from items located in our Book Storage Facility; the scanned sections are then emailed directly to you.

Who can use the service?
All current University of Oxford academics, students and staff. At the moment the service is not open to external readers (library card holders).

How much does it cost?
£4.75 per request, payable via your PCAS account.

How long will it take for my scanning request to arrive?
Usually within 24 hours, excluding weekends and University closed days.

How do I use the service?

1. Sign on to SOLO with your single sign-on
2. Find the item that you want scanned
3. Click on 'Location' then 'Scan & Deliver' which appears under 'Request Options'
4. Your request will be processed and your item will be emailed to you within 24 hours

For further information ask a member of library staff or visit: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/scan-and-deliver.

New term news round-up

Welcome back to those returning after the summer, and a warm welcome too to new students!  Our term time hours start today (Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm; Saturday, 10am-2pm), and we look forward to seeing you all in the library soon.

Here's a round-up of various bits of news from over the summer that you may have missed:

New electronic resources
We have been able to acquire (or contribute to the acquisition of) four major new electronic resources for US studies this summer, as follows:

• The Congressional Record (and predecessors), 1789-1999
• The American West: Sources from the Everett D. Graff Collection at the Newberry Library, Chicago
• Virginia Company Archives: The Ferrar Papers, 1590-1790
• Rock & Roll, Counterculture, Peace & Protest: Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975

All are now available through SOLO/OxLIP+ and listed in our online guide. Click on the links above for more information.

Improvements to SOLO: clustering, display of locations
Various changes were implemented to SOLO over the summer, as follows:

• Clustering and default sort order
• Physical resources search limit
• Display of locations and request options
• Display of shelfmark information
• Display of reading room locations

Click on the links above to learn more. 

History Faculty Library move
The move of the History Faculty Library to the Radcliffe Camera and Gladstone Link took place as planned over the summer vacation. The old HFL on the corner of Catte St and Holywell St has now closed. All the details, including information on where and how to access HFL books now, can be found on the HFL website and blog. HFL staff are also offering tours throughout 0th and 1st weeks for returning tutors and students.

Less directly relevant to VHL readers, the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library has also moved this summer, and is now open in its new location in the Radcliffe Humanities Building on Woodstock Road.

Annual ILL price rise
Charges for inter-library loans increased by 25p per request on 1st August.


RAI Elections 2012 blog
If you are avidly following the US elections, you may be interested to know that the Rothermere American Institute has launched a blog in partnership with Politics in Spires, designed to bring together contributions from scholars from a range of different fields to discuss the upcoming elections. The blog can be read on the RAI website and will run until mid-November.

Would you like to have input into the future of the Bodleian Libraries?

Bodleian Libraries are holding a series of meetings to consult with members of Congregation, students, and other readers on its proposed Strategic Plan for 2013-17.

Details of event times and locations are below. Please note that the first two meetings are intended principally as consultation with members of Congregation, while the final meeting is intended for students and is being coordinated with OUSU.

Consultation with members of Congregation
Wednesday 3 October, 3-5pm
Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Martin Wood Complex, Department of Physics

Consultation with members of Congregation
Wednesday 24 October, 11am-1pm
Bernard Sunley Theatre, St Catherine's College, Manor Road

Consultation with students
Monday 29 October, 5-7pm
Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Martin Wood Complex, Department of Physics

Please visit www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/strategicplanning2012 to access the current strategic plan and the proposed draft plan.

For any queries, please email communications@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Term time opening hours begin next week

From next Monday (1st October) we will revert to our term-time opening hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm; Saturday 10am-2pm.

Engage: Social Media Michaelmas

‘Engage:’ will offer a full term of social media and digital communications events around the University with the aim of helping an academic community of staff and students explore tools and strategies for building online presence, social networking and digital engagement. The organizing team (based in IT Services and the Bodleian Libraries with support from around the University) has a strong programme of events running throughout Michaelmas. This includes workshops on online presence and editing Wikipedia, classes on podcasting, image manipulation and copyright and lunchtime sessions on Facebook pages, Twitter for Academia, keeping up to date, etc. We hope to bring in a number of outside speakers to discuss areas such as using social media to improve your citation rankings, working with Creative Commons licensing and more. Alongside this will be offered a free ‘23 Things’ course. This self-directed online programme provides a framework for participants to explore 23 social media and digital communications ‘things’ over a period of ten weeks, building up skills in an online community of learners. There will also be a 23 Things Blog, so that those who would like to participate in the programme can use it to follow along and see who else in the University community is participating.

For more information, and to find out how to participate, see the Engage website.

New electronic resource: Congressional Record (and predecessors)

We're delighted to announce that we now have full text access to the electronic archives of the Congressional Record and its predecessors via ProQuest. This archive covers over 200 years of activities in Congress, from 1789-1999, including the verbatim text of debates in both the House and Senate from the beginning of the Congressional Record in 1873 onwards.

Access is now available via SOLO/OxLIP+.

Window cleaning, week beginning 10th September

The windows at the RAI will be being cleaned in the week beginning 10th September. This will include an internal clean within the library, but disruption should be minimal.

AKS collection 2012

This year's set of books purchased as part of the AKS collection have arrived and are now available in the library. Each year, the American Association of Rhodes Scholars generously pays for the library to purchase approximately 100 books in memory of Frank Aydelotte (first American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships), Paul Kieffer (President of the American Association of Rhodes Scholars, 1957-1969), and Courtney Smith (second American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships).

The books are kept on display by the entrance to the library for a year. Thereafter they are moved upstairs and shelved as part of the main collection.  The books currently on display separately can be identified by the prefix AKS to their shelfmark.

This year's acquisitions may be found on SOLO by searching for AKS in the shelfmark, or clicking on this link.

We are ever grateful to the American Association of Rhodes Scholars for funding this collection.

Bank holiday 27th August: Library closed

A reminder that the library will be closed for the Bank Holiday on Monday 27th August.

Maintenance work this week: mezzanine closed

The mezzanine floor of the library is currently closed to readers while essential maintenance work takes place. The upper floors of the library may be used as normal.

We apologise for any disruption, particularly while the scaffold tower is being erected and dismantled.

University network downtime - Tuesday 7th and Thursday 9th August

As part of the work to upgrade the University network infrastructure this summer, there will be no network access throughout the University for up to four hours starting at 7am on the mornings of Tuesday 7th and Thursday 9th August. SOLO will also be down during this period, as will the web interface for topping up your PCAS account.

New e-resources: American West, Virginia Company Archives, Popular Culture 1950-1975

We're delighted to announce that we now have permanent access to three major new e-resource collections for US history, as follows:

The American West: Sources from the Everett D. Graff Collection at the Newberry Library, Chicago
This database contains a wide variety of digitised manuscripts, maps, ephemera, and rare printed sources covering all aspects of Western American history up to the 1930s.

Virginia Company Archives: The Ferrar Papers, 1590-1790
This resource documents the founding and economic development of Virginia as seen through the papers of the Virginia Company of London (1606-1624) and the papers of the Ferrar family (1590-1790). Also includes a digitised version of the four volumes of The Records of the Virginia Company of London.

Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace & Protest: Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
This resource contains a wealth of printed and manuscript sources, visual material, ephemera and video clips, documenting the era on both sides of the Atlantic.

All three resources are now available via SOLO/OxLIP+ and are listed in our online guide. Look out for more in-depth posts on all three in due course on our resources blog.

Annual ILL price rise

From 1st August 2012 the charges for inter-library loans will increase by 25p as follows:

• Loan, photocopy, or delivery of an item by secure electronic delivery for University members from £4.75 to £5.00
• Urgent requests for University members from £10.75 to £11.00
• Worldwide requests for University members from £12.75 to £13.00 

Our charges were last increased in January 2012; this was the delayed increase from August 2011. This price rise brings our annual increases in line with the University financial year.

Full information on the Bodleian Libraries' inter-library loans service can be found at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/ill.

Changes to SOLO, 28-29 July 2012: Improvements to display of records and clustering

Following extensive testing and consultation, the Bodleian Libraries are pleased to announce several improvements to SOLO, which will be implemented over the weekend of 28-29 July.

1. Partial clustering and default sort order

Certain categories of material will now be excluded from clustering (where SOLO groups together multiple ‘versions’ of items). While clustering is highly valued by a large number of readers, it is clear that a universal approach to clustering causes problems for users searching for particular types of material, namely early printed books (pre-1830), maps, music, and audio-visual items. We have now excluded these categories, so they will no longer be pulled into the clusters of print and electronic versions of the same work. They will instead be visible in the main results list, separate from any clustered records. Modern printed materials and electronic resources will continue to be grouped into clusters.

This partial clustering approach offers a significant improvement to the search experience while retaining the benefits of clustering for the majority of searches and readers.

The default sort order within clusters will remain ‘relevance’. This substantially mitigates the problem of finding specific editions within large clusters for material. If you prefer to see your search results sorted by date, please select from the sort options at the top of the results list. These options will also be made more prominent.



2. Limit searches to ‘Physical Resources (not online)'

It will now be possible to limit your search to physical resources, in the same way that you can currently limit your search to electronic resources. To do so, choose ‘Physical Resources (not online)’ from the drop-down menu next to the main search box. Please note that you will still see links to digitised versions of texts scanned as part of the Google Books project, as these are attached to the record for the physical item rather than catalogued separately. You may therefore also still see an option to limit your results to online resources if these digitised copies are available.

3. Display of locations and request options

The ‘Request’ and ‘Locations’ tabs in item records will be consolidated into a single ‘Find & Request’ tab to streamline the request process. The ‘Find & Request’ tab will show the various locations with the option to ‘hold’ (for stack requests and reservations) or request a copy via the Bodleian Scan & Deliver service (if available.)




 


From www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/notices/2012-july-17

Bodleian Library: restricted access to the Gladstone Link

During the period Monday 16 July – Friday 27 July and Monday 6 August – Friday 17 August inclusive, access to the Gladstone Link will only be possible via the Old Bodleian Library.

There will no access to the Gladstone Link from the Radcliffe Camera and likewise no access to the Radcliffe Camera from the Gladstone Link. However, this route remains available for use in the event of an emergency evacuation.

The restricted access is to enable the move out of less-used new academic material to the Book Storage Facility and the move in of History Faculty Library material following the closure of that Library at 5.30pm on Friday 3 August.

Areas of the Gladstone Link will be cordoned off as the book moves take place and material on the shelves in these areas will be inaccessible to readers until the cordons have been removed. If you need assistance please speak to staff either in the GL or at the Main Enquiry Desk in the Lower Reading Room.

HFL move update

Further information regarding the move of the HFL is now available on the HFL blog. We now know that as part of the transfer to the Radcliffe Camera, HFL operations and services in the Old Indian Institute building will cease from  17:30 on Friday 3 August.  Collections will move to the Radcliffe Camera and Gladstone Link between 6 and 17 August; HFL staff will move soon after that.


For more information and to receive updates as the HFL move progresses, please see the HFL blog: http://historyatox.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/hfl-move-update-10-july-2012/

University network upgrade: change to scheduled downtime

OUCS have announced a change to the schedule of planned downtime for the network upgrade work this summer. There will now be no downtime on Tuesday 3rd July; instead the downtime that was planned for then will take place on Thursday 9th July. Again the downtime may last up to 11.30am.

This will affect all networked library services, including SOLO, PCAS, reader PCs and the wireless network.

Network downtime Tuesday 26th June am - Wireless, SOLO, Library PCs

As part of the work to upgrade the University network infrastructure this summer, the following library services will be unavailable for up to four hours starting at 7am on Tuesday 26th June:

• Wireless (OWL, Eduroam and Bodleian-Libraries)
• SOLO
• Library PCs

History database trials

The History Librarian has arranged trial access to 40 history electronic resources until mid-July, some of which will be of interest to VHL readers. The full list of resources being trialled, along with information on how to provide feedback, can be found at http://ox.libguides.com/historydatabasetrials - please do explore them and vote for your preferred resources in order to help the History Librarian prioritise some for purchase.

Resources which may be of interest to Americanists are:

• State Papers Online, 1509-1714 (parts 3 & 4)
• Witchcraft in Europe and America
• British Online Archives: British Records on the Atlantic World, 1700-1900
• Making of the Modern World, 1851-1900 (part 2)
• Victorian Popular Culture
• Cold War: Voices of Confrontation and Conciliation
• Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace & Protest
• The Vogue Archive

University network upgrade this summer: effect on library services

Over the coming weeks, the University Computing Service is undertaking work to upgrade the University network. This will necessitate periods of scheduled downtime.

Networked library services may be unavailable, in some cases until 11.30am on:

• Tuesday 26 June
• Tuesday 3 July UPDATE 29/6 - this downtime has been rescheduled to Thursday 9 August.
• Tuesday 7 August

SOLO, reader and staff workstations, wireless and Ethernet connections, and PCAS may be unavailable during the mornings. There may also be delays to the book service.

Local work affecting the Vere Harmsworth Library will be carried out on Tuesday 7 August. The networked services listed above may be unavailable in the Vere Harmsworth Library until 11am on this date. Again, this may cause delays to the book service on that morning.

We apologize for the inconvenience that this necessary work may cause.

Reminder: Mezzanine closed and Donor Board Ceremony taking place tomorrow afternoon

A reminder that the mezzanine floor will be closed to readers tomorrow afternoon for a ceremony to unveil the new Donor Board at the RAI. The ceremony will take place between 4 and 5pm. Readers are welcome to remain in the library on the upper floors throughout but please note that there will be some noise while the ceremony takes place.

Summer vacation opening hours

Summer vacation opening hours begin on Monday 18th June. From then until the end of September the library will be open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm only.

The last Saturday opening for this term will be this Saturday, 9th June. We will be closed on Saturday 16th June.

HFL move update

An update to plans for the move of the History Faculty Library to the Radcliffe Camera and Gladstone Link this summer has been published on the Bodleian website. Details are still being fixed but at the moment the timeline is expected to be as follows:

• HFL vacation loans (with an increase from 30 to 40 books) begin on 11th June
• Normal access will be maintained to both the HFL and the Radcliffe Camera until 27th July; all services offered as normal
• HFL move begins 30th July
• HFL will probably close on 6th August; books can continue to be returned to the HFL until 17th August, but thereafter will need to be returned to the Lower Camera
• The Radcliffe Camera may need to close completely during parts of August and September to ensure all work is completed before Michaelmas Term.

The Just-In-Time team (email moves@bodleian.ox.ac.uk) will be on hand to help locate alternative copies of books and journals affected by the move.

For more information on the move itself and the background to it, please see: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/notices/history-faculty-library-move. This page will be updated with further information as and when details become more fixed. You can also keep up to date with progress and plans on the HFL blog.

The VHL will be unaffected throughout. 

Mezzanine closed Tuesday 12th June for Donor Board unveiling

The mezzanine floor of the library will be closed to readers on the afternoon of Tuesday 12th June as it will be used for a ceremony to unveil a new Donor Board at the RAI. The ceremony will begin at 4pm and last no more than an hour. Readers are welcome to remain in the library on the upper floors throughout, but please note that there will be some noise while the ceremony takes place.

Jubilee Bank Holiday opening hours, 4th & 5th June

A reminder that despite the Jubilee Bank Holiday we will be open as normal on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th June. Deliveries of stack requests will also be unaffected.

Event in RAI garden, Thursday 31st May

There will be a drinks event taking place in the RAI garden between 5 and 6pm on Thursday 31st May. It is unlikely to cause much disruption, but the garden will be unavailable between these times and some noise may be audible in the library, especially on the mezzanine if the windows are open.

New SOLO service information and updates web page

The Bodleian Libraries website now includes a page dedicated to information and updates about SOLO. The web page can be found under ‘Services’ on the Bodleian homepage and includes pointers to sources of help and guidance as well as a list of current known issues and plans for future development of the service.

Updates about the SOLO service and its development will also be provided through the Reader Notices feed as and when appropriate.

You can access the new SOLO Service Updates page at www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/solo

WISER coming up: Finding Stuff and Sources for Historians (British/W Europe; US)

Bodleian Libraries will be running the following workshops during week 6. Of particular relevance to VHL readers is next Friday's session on Sources for US History.

WISER: Finding Stuff - Books etc on SOLO [Wednesday 30 May 14.00 - 14.45] - An introduction to SOLO for finding books, journal titles and other materials in Oxford libraries. The session will cover effective search techniques, placing hold requests for items in the stacks, reservations and using the SOLO eshelf and saved searches.  >Book your place online

WISER: Finding Stuff - Journal Articles [Wednesday 30 May 14.45 - 16.00] - This session will focus on finding journal articles for your research using a wide range of databases as well as developing effective search strategies. There will be plenty of time for participants to try out their own searches using databases for their subject. >Book your place online

WISER: Finding stuff - Conferences [Wednesday 30 May 16.00 - 17.00] - Conference papers can be difficult to find but they are valuable because they describe cutting-edge research. This session will enable you to find out about forthcoming conferences and also to locate the published papers of proceedings which have taken place.  >Book your place online

WISER: Online Sources for Historians [Friday 1 June 14.00 - 15.15] - A general introduction to the vast range of electronic resources which are available for all historical periods for British and West European history including  bibliographical databases, biographical and reference research aids, e-books and ejournals, web portals and collections of online primary source materials.  >Book your place online

WISER: Sources for US History  [Friday 1 June 15.30 - 17.00] - An introduction to key information sources for the study of colonial America & US history. Starting with finding tools to locate material, examples of source materials will then be shown including archival, microform, printed/online collections & useful web portals & audiovisual collections. >Book your place online       

Bodleian Libraries workshops - Check http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops for the full WISER programme and for details of other training opportunities offered by Bodleian Libraries. Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser,  visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com or join our mailling list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Exhibition in library until Monday: St Helena material from Rhodes House

To coincide with the meeting of the Friends of St Helena, which is taking place in Oxford this weekend, Rhodes House Library have set up a display of some material relating to St Helena from their collections in our exhibition cases. The material will only be on display until Monday, so if you are curious to see then be sure to come in before then.

WISER and other workshops coming up: Images, Getting information to come to you, Manuscripts and RefWorks

Bodleian Libraries will be running the following workshops during week 4:     

ARTstor and Bridgeman: Using images in teaching and learning [Tuesday 15 May 14:00-16:00] - This workshops covers two major digital image collections subscribed to by the University - ARTstor and Bridgeman Education - geared to research and teaching in the humanities, history of science and medicine, and social sciences.  The session will cover searching, viewing, presenting and managing images.   
Presenters:  Clare Hills-Nova and Vicky Brown.  > Book your place

WISER: Getting information to come to you [Wednesday 16 May 14.00 - 15.30] – How to keep abreast of new publications and papers in your research area, research news and opportunities using RSS feeds and email alerts. The session will include a demonstration and time to set up an RSS reader or email notifications.
Presenters: Jane Rawson and Penny Schenk.  > Book your place

WISER: Manuscripts [Wednesday 16 May 15.30 - 17.00] – An overview of the rich heritage collections preserved in the Bodleian. This session will also help readers to locate relevant material and describe the procedures for access and getting assistance. 
Presenter: Mike Webb. > Book your place

RefWorks for Sciences and Social Sciences [Friday 18 May 14.00 - 17.00] - RefWorks is an online tool which allows you to manage your references, insert them into your work, automatically generate bibliographies and easily switch between citation styles. This introduction is open to all but the section on importing references will focus on Science/Social Science examples.
Presenters: Nia Roberts and Shona MacLean > Book your place

Bodleian Libraries workshops - Check http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops for the full WISER programme and for details of other training opportunities offered by Bodleian Libraries. Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser,  visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com or join our mailling list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Events in RAI garden, Thursday 10th and Saturday 12th May

Mansfield College will be using the RAI's garden as part of an arts festival on two occasions this week, and it's possible that this may cause a small amount of noise disruption in the library. The garden will be in use in the afternoons of Thursday 10th May between 3.30pm and 5.30pm, and Saturday 12th May after 12 noon.

WISER coming up: Theses & ORA, RefWorks

Bodleian Libraries will be running the following workshops during week 3:     

WISER: Your thesis, copyright and ORA [Wednesday 9 May 12:30 – 1:30] - Oxford DPhil students are required to deposit a copy of their thesis in ORA (Oxford University Research Archive). This session will focus on copyright and other issues that DPhil students need to take into account when preparing and writing their thesis so that they do not encounter problems when they deposit. DPhils are encouraged to attend this session early so that they can make sensible decisions regarding rights from the start of their research.
Presenter: Catherine Goudie. >Book your place online

RefWorks for Humanities [Friday 11 May 14.00 - 17.00] - RefWorks is an online tool which allows you to manage your references, insert them into your work, automatically generate bibliographies and easily switch between citation styles. This introduction is open to all, but the section on importing references will focus on Humanities examples. 
Presenters: Valerie Lawrence and Angela Carritt. Book your place online. 

More reference management workshops - there will be more reference management workshops later in term. See http://bodwiser.wordpress.com/ for more details.

Bodleian Libraries workshops - Check http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops for the full WISER programme and for details of other training opportunities offered by Bodleian Libraries. Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser,  visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com or join our mailling list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Bank holiday opening hours and book service

The library will be open as usual on the Bank Holiday on Monday 7th May, from 9am to 7pm. The Bodleian will be operating a normal book service, so we will have deliveries of stack requests in as usual.

We will also be open as usual on the two Bank Holidays for the Diamond Jubilee on 4th and 5th June.

Information about Bank Holiday opening in the Central Bodleian is available at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/notices/may-bank-holiday-bodleian-library.

History Thesis Fair for undergraduates, 10th May

All 2nd year history undergraduates are encouraged to drop in on the Thesis Fair which will give you the opportunity to discover the University’s vast information resources including library, archive and electronic materials.

Library experts and academic historians will be on hand to provide expert assistance and tips on the information available to you for your research and how to search through it. I'll be there offering information and guidance on sources for US history.

Read more about the fair on the HFL blog at http://historyatox.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/history-thesis-fair/ and website at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/thesisfair.

WISER coming up: Finding stuff

Are you confident that you are finding the best papers to support your research and study? Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running the following workshops on finding scholarly materials. 

WISER: Finding stuff – books etc on SOLO (Monday 30 April 14.00.-15.00 and repeated Wednesday 30 May 14.00-14.45)  – introduces SOLO for searching Oxford Libraries and focuses on effective ways of using SOLO to find books, journal titles and other library materials in print and online.  The workshop also includes placing “hold requests” for materials in the  bookstacks, how to use your SOLO “MyAccount” for book renewals and other administration and using  the SOLO e-shelf and alerts.  Please book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZWA

WISER: Finding stuff – Journal Articles  (Monday 30 April 15.00.-16.15 and repeated Wednesday 30 May 14.45-16.00) - an introduction to finding journal articles to support your research and learning. We will focus on searching for articles by subject and keyword and will cover sophisticated bibliographic databases and journal indexes as well as more basic search engines such as SOLO “Journal Articles” service. The session will include  time for you to practice using a scholarly database in your subject area. Please book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZW3

WISER: Finding Stuff – Theses and Dissertations (Monday 30 April 16.15-17.00) – An introduction to finding Theses in Oxford and from Universities around the World. The session will cover searching SOLO for Oxford Theses, Index to Theses and EThOS for UK Theses and Proquest’s Dissertations and Theses database for dissertations from outside the UK. Please book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TFZ4.

More Bodleian Libraries workshops-  Check http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops for the full WISER programme and for details of other training opportunities offered by Bodleian Libraries. Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser, visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com or join our mailling list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Saturday opening Trinity Term

The library will be open on Saturdays throughout Trinity Term (from 21st April to 9th June), 10am-2pm.

Scan & Deliver: New service from the Bodleian Libraries

Today the Bodleian Libraries launch Scan & Deliver, a service offering an electronic document delivery solution for over six million items held in our Book Storage Facility.  This pilot will be available for current members of the University.

Requests will be placed through SOLO.   The Scan & Deliver option will be offered only for eligible items and will only be visible after an Oxford Single Sign On log in.  The same copyright regulations will apply as with our existing reading room and reprographics services (one article from a journal issue, one chapter or 5% of a book.); you will need to specify which section you require.

Once processed, the scan will be posted on a server and you will receive an email including a link to the scan.  The Scan & Deliver team will usually fulfil the request within 24 hours although this turnaround time does not account for weekends and any University holidays.  Each request will incur a flat rate fee of £4.75 with payment managed through PCAS (printing, copying, and scanning) accounts.  This cost reflects an unsubsidized estimated cost, which will be reviewed in future against actual costs and take-up.

More information is available at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/scan-and-deliver

New sites saved on our delicious page

As it's a while since the last time, a quick reminder explanation that we have a page on delicious.com which we use to save links to useful free web resources as and when we come across them. Every now and then we'll post a round-up of the most recent links saved on the blog, and you can always take a look at the full list at delicious.com/vhllib.

Old Maps Online

The OldMapsOnline Portal is an easy-to-use gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. It allows the user to search for online digital historical maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search. Search by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution.

William Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project

The William Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project tells the legal history of the civil rights struggle. The online interviews, which filled 273 tapes left to the library, are available through the library's Virgo service. For more information see: http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=17423&tr=y&auid=10274558

The John Carter Brown Library: Online resources

Portal to the online digitised resources of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

Digital Schomburg | The New York Public Library

Digital Schomburg provides access to trusted information, interpretation and scholarship on the global black experience. Users worldwide can find, in this virtual Schomburg Center, exhibitions, books, articles, photographs, prints, audio and video streams, and selected external links for research in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.

National Archives Print Shop

Online shop for prints from the National Archives collections. Includes many historic images, Civil War photographs, maps etc.

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web

This site features links to online exhibitions that have been created by libraries, archives, and historical societies, as well as to museum online exhibitions with a significant focus on library and archival materials. The scope is international and multi-lingual. The online exhibitions included in this guide draw their inspiration and content primarily from library and archival materials, including, for example: printed books, book illustrations, manuscripts, photographs, printed ephemera, posters, archival sound and video recordings, artist's books, and the book arts (engraving, marbling, and bookbinding, etc.). Although many of these online exhibitions were originally created to accompany shows held in the exhibition galleries of their institutions, a growing number exist in digital format only. The online exhibitions in this guide are keyword-searchable by title, subject, and the name of the sponsoring institution.

Guides and bibliographies - British Library Americas Collections

Archive | The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change

Digitised documents from The King Center's archive.

Social Explorer Maps: Demographic maps and reports of the United States 1790-

Interactive demographic maps of census data from 1790 to present, as well as religious data maps 1980-2000 and time series maps for New York and Los Angeles.

Flickr: Boston Public Library's Photostream

Delaware Heritage Collection

Digital collections from the Delaware Public Libraries, Delaware Public Archives and others.

Minor disruption to photocopying and printing, Friday 16th March am

There will be some minor disruption to the PCAS (printing, copying and scanning) system during the morning of Friday 16th March while a new reporting system is installed. This may cause the system to run slowly at times.

Apologies for any inconvenience. The work should be complete by midday.

E-resource trial: Accessible Archives (until 2nd April)

We are currently trialling the American History collections available through Accessible Archives. Accessible Archives offer access to a variety of primary sources for 18th and 19th century American history, including historic newspaper archives, county histories, and documents relating to the Civil War. A full list of the sources included in the database is available at http://www.accessible-archives.com/collections/.

This trial runs until 2nd April and is accessible via OxLIP+ (sign in first for remote access) or directly via the Accessible Archives website. Please send any feedback to jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Easter Vacation Opening Hours

Our opening hours/closed periods over the Easter vacation are as follows:

Week beginning 12th March through to week beginning 16th April:

Monday - Friday, 9am-7pm
Closed Saturdays and Sundays

Closed Good Friday and Easter Monday (6th-9th April)

This Saturday (10th March) is the last Saturday open until Trinity Term.

Postgraduates and Academics: Help the Libraries and get a £10 Amazon voucher

Bodleian Libraries will be running a focus group in week 8 to gather feedback on our forthcoming “scan on demand” service which will allow readers to order scans of library materials such as books, journals etc held in the library bookstacks. The focus group will take about one hour and participants will be thanked with a £10 Amazon voucher. If you would be interested in participating please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk with the name of your department, your academic status (e.g. postgraduate, research staff, academic) and your telephone number.

Oxford Google Books appearing in SOLO

The Bodleian Libraries have started the process of loading links into SOLO for Oxford books scanned as part of the Google Books project. These are being loaded in batches over the next few weeks, and we anticipate that there will be some 300,000 links to scanned versions of Oxford books available through SOLO by mid-March.

Google scanned several hundred thousand books from Oxford's collections, including many from the VHL stack. The books scanned were all out-of-copyright, mostly from the 19th century.

Please see http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/dbooks/ for more information on Oxford's participation in the Google Books project and how these scanned versions will be findable and accessible in SOLO.

Calling all Historians: Proposed move of the History Faculty Library

Bodleian Libraries is consulting with staff and students of the History Faculty over the proposal to transfer the existing services and collections of the History Faculty Library to the Radcliffe Camera during the Long Vacation 2012.

The proposal will improve:

• Your library: services and collections centred in the iconic Rad Cam. Borrow from Lower Camera.
• Your time: 24 extra hours per week, and all day Saturday and Sunday opening. > more
• Your convenience: Access on a single site to all history collections. > more
• Your books, journals and databases: More funding for books, journals, and databases.
• Your space: More desks and varied spaces > more
• Your library support team: Better and more specialist support for historians offered by re-grouped HFL staff into the History Information Services Team

The proposal has to be seen in the context of the following:

• agreed consolidation of Humanities libraries into fewer sites as a long-term strategic aim;
• continuing aspirations for service improvement set against pressure on finances;
• the likely delay in development of the main Humanities facility at the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter for some years;
• the threat of extremely disruptive building works when a lift is installed in the Old Indian Institute (OII) building in 2012/13 and associated significant and permanent loss of shelf, reader and support space;
• ability to fully fund the move and improvements to working environments.

For more information about the proposal and the consultation, please see the History Faculty Library website at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/about/hfl-move. The HFL is also regularly updating their blog with news about the consultation at http://historyatox.wordpress.com.

Image credit: HFL

RAI Seminar - Inside the Workings of the American Historical Review

VHL readers may be interested in the following Special Seminar, to be held on Wednesday 22 February (16.00-17.30) at the Rothermere American Institute.

Inside the Workings of the American Historical Review

The American Historical Review (AHR) is often regarded as the leading history journal of the Anglophone world. Certainly it has the highest 'impact factor' among history journals, according to the Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters, which measure how often articles are peer-cited. As the official publication of the American Historical Association, since 1895 it has been the journal of record for the history profession in the United States - the only journal that brings together scholarship from every major field of historical study. The most recent issue, for example, includes articles on piracy in the Indian Ocean, colonial governance in three frontiers of the British Empire, the understanding of 'freedom' in nineteenth-century Japan, and US imperialism, and an AHR Conversation on the circulation of information across time and space.

Former editors Konstantin Dierks and Sarah Knott (RAI Senior Visiting Research Fellows) will lead an informal discussion about the inner workings of the AHR, from the journal's ambitions to its article review process to its book review practices. All are welcome.

WISER coming up: Finding stuff (Books, journal articles, conferences)

Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running the following workshops on finding research materials:

WISER: Finding stuff - Books etc on SOLO (Wednesday 22 February 2.00-2.45) - A short 45 minute session introducing tips and techniques for searching SOLO for books, journals and other materials in Oxford Libraries. We will cover both basic and advanced search techniques and also look at placing hold requests for items in the book stacks and some of SOLO's personalised features such as the e-shelf and saved searches.  The session will take place at Oxford University Computing Services - please book your place online.

WISER: Finding stuff - Journal Articles  (Wednesday 22 February 2.45-4.00) - This session  will focus on using bibliographical tools and indexes to find high quality papers in your research area. We will look at how to find reliable bibliographical databases in your subject and how to search them effectively to optimize your results. The session will  take just over an hour and will include time for you to practice. Please book your place online.

WISER: Finding  Stuff - Conferences  (Wednesday 22 February 4.00-5.00) - Finding past conference papers and proceedings and keeping up with forthcoming conferences in your research area are important skills for all researchers but can be quite tricky.   Next week’s 1 hour workshop on finding conferences will start by looking at where to find  forthcoming conference announcements and how to keep up with them and will then move on to look at ways of tracking down elusive conference papers.  Please book your place online;

Keeping up to date with the WISER programme - Why not follow  us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser  or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com You can also check the timetable on the WISER web site at http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops or join our mailling list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Graduates: Streamline your research with a Research Skills Toolkit

Need to brush up on your IT and information skills?  Why not come to a Research Skills Toolkit in 8th week? These free 2 hour workshops introduce key software and online tools to streamline your research, hone your searching and information skills and provide opportunities to  meet subject specialists. Topics on offer include:

•     Finding articles, papers, conferences and theses
•     Keeping up to date and current awareness
•     Using Endnote to manage your references
•     Manipulating images using Gimp
•     Managing your thesis with word
•     Analyzising data with Excel pivot tables
•     Podcasting with Audacity
•     Plagiarism and how to avoid it
•     Your thesis, copyright and ORA
•     Finding highly cited journals and measuring research impact

These workshops are open to Oxford graduate researchers in week 8 of Hilary Term. Please attend the session for your division or subject area.  > Find out more and book your place. (Weblearn - Oxford SSO needed to access).

Sessions relevant to VHL readers are on the following dates:

• Tuesday 6th March, 12.00-14.05 - Humanities (general)
• Tuesday 6th March, 14.30-16.35 - Social Sciences
• Wednesday 7th March, 12.00-14.05 - Social Sciences
• Wednesday 7th March, 14.30-16.35 - History

Toolkits take place at Oxford University Computing Services and are run jointly by the Bodleian Libraries and Computing Services.