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.

Bank holiday 27th August: Library closed

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

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.

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.

Saturday opening Trinity Term

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

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.

New Year News - change to default sort order within clustered search results, inter-library loan price rise, opening hours

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas break! The library is now open again for 2012.

A few pieces of news for the new year: 

Change to default sort order within clustered search results

This morning, the Bodleian Libraries have implemented the first stage of a plan to improve the display of records in SOLO with clusters of versions (where SOLO has grouped together ‘versions’ of the same work). To achieve this, the default sort order for search results within clusters will be changed to relevance rather than date-newest. If you prefer to see your results in date order you can still do so – please use the sort option at the top of the results screen.

While clustering is beneficial to and highly valued by a large number of readers, it can cause problems for others, particularly where searching for very specific editions or antiquarian/non-book material. The long-term aim is to exclude certain categories of material from clustering, which will solve the small number of problematic cases while retaining the benefits of clustering for the majority of searches and readers. 

The decision to retain clustering in SOLO and work to improve it was taken following extensive consultation and user testing. The change to sort order within clusters is a first step to mitigate against some of the major problems caused by clustering while we work to develop an improved solution for everyone.

Inter-library loan price rises

The January 2012  ILL price increase has now been implemented. 

This represents an annual increase since the charges were last revised in January 2012, and are in line with a recommendation that was passed by the Curators to apply a 25p annual increase to our charges for Inter-library loans and document supply.

The ILL charge increases are as follows:

• Loan, photocopy, or delivery of an item by secure electronic delivery for University members from £4.50 to £4.75          
• Urgent requests for University members from £10.50 to £10.75 
• Worldwide searches for University members from £12.50 to £12.75.

The full revised price list can be found on the Bodleian website at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/ill/prices

After this price rise, the annual price increase will take place in line with the beginning of the budget year so there will be a further rise of 25p from August 2012.

Saturday opening Hilary Term

The VHL will be open on Saturdays throughout Hilary Term (10am-2pm), from 14th January - 10th March.  

 

Christmas closure

The library will close at 5pm on Friday and reopen at 9am on Tuesday 3rd January. For those registered to borrow, any books taken out or renewed from Thursday 22nd will be due back when we reopen on 3rd January.

We hope all our readers have a lovely and peaceful Christmas - see you all in the New Year!

Picture credit: mandaloo on Flickr

Christmas vacation opening hours

Weekday opening hours over the Christmas vacation are as follows:

• Monday 5th December - Thursday 22nd December: 9am-7pm.
• Friday 23rd December - 9am-5pm
• Monday 26th December - Monday 2nd January - CLOSED
• Tuesday 3rd January onwards - 9am-7pm.

We will be closed on Saturdays from 10th December - 7th January inclusive.

Term time opening hours and *NEW* Saturday opening

From Monday 3rd October we will revert to our term time opening hours of 9am-7pm, Monday-Friday.  We are also pleased be able to announce that we are extending Saturday opening hours this year, and so will be open from 10am-2pm on Saturdays during term time (0th-8th week).

Bank holiday closing

The library will be closed on Monday 29th August for the August Bank Holiday.

Library opening late Wednesday 10th August

Due to a planned electrical shutdown, the library will open at 9.30am next Wednesday (10th August).

Summer opening hours

From Monday 27th June, the library will move to Summer vacation opening hours: 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday only.  We will be closed on Saturdays from 24th June onwards.  Summer hours will apply until the end of September.

Bank holiday opening: Monday 30th May

The library will be open as usual on Monday, 9am-7pm. Please note that there will be a limited service only from the Bodleian bookstacks.

Early closing tomorrow (21st May)

The library will close at 12.45pm tomorrow, due to the planned march by the animal rights group SPEAK. University Security will be locking all gates into the science area, including those leading to us, at 1.00pm sharp. If you are coming in to use the library tomorrow therefore, you will need to be outside the gates by 1pm at the absolute latest, otherwise you will find yourself locked in!

Please note that the only gate open at all tomorrow will be the small pedestrian gate next to the Chemistry Research Laboratory. The main gates from South Parks Road and Mansfield Road will be closed all day.

Apologies for the very short notice, but we have only just been advised of the Security Service's plans ourselves.

Saturday Opening: Trinity Term

The library will be open on Saturdays throughout Trinity Term, 10am-2pm, starting this Saturday (30th April) until 18th June. A reminder that we will be open as usual on both Bank Holidays this weekend (Friday 29th and Monday 2nd), 9am-7pm, although there will be a limited service from the bookstack on both days.

Easter/Bank holiday hours and bookstack deliveries

Our opening hours over the Easter weekend and the Bank Holidays that follow are:

• Friday 22nd April: closed
• Monday 25th April: closed
• Friday 29th April: open 9am-7pm
• Monday 2nd May: open 9am-7pm
• Monday 30th May: open 9am-7pm

We've been informed by the Bodleian that there will only be a limited bookstack delivery service on the bank holidays. If you want to consult material from the Bodleian stack on those days, please make sure you order it a few days in advance to ensure it gets here beforehand.

Other libraries may have altered or reduced opening hours on these days - check the Bodleian Libraries website or individual library websites for more information.

Easter and Bank Holiday opening hours: advance notice

The VHL will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday (22nd-25th April), but will be open with normal hours (9am-7pm) on the three bank holidays that follow (Friday 29th April, Monday 2nd May, Monday 30th May).  We will be open as usual throughout the Easter vacation apart from the Easter weekend, Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm.

A list of opening hours for the Bodleian Libraries on Friday 29th April can be found on the Bodleian Libraries' website at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/notices/2011-mar-11.

Saturday hours - end of term and Easter vacation

This coming Saturday (12th March) is the last one that we will be open for Hilary Term.  We will be closed on Saturdays throughout the Easter vacation, and will next be open on Saturday on 30th April for Trinity Term.

Saturday Opening - Hilary Term

Some good news for the new year!  Contrary to our previously published hours, the library will be open on Saturday mornings throughout Hilary Term, 10am-2pm (0th-8th week inclusive, or 15th January - 12th March).  This is a pilot to see if there is sufficient demand to justify extending Saturday opening outside of Trinity Term next year.   Please make use of the extra hours, and if you have any comments about Saturday opening, please let us know!