WISER sessions this term

The programme for WISER sessions (Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources) during Trinity Term is now available on the web at: http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/services/training/wiser/trinity2009.

Saturday opening in Trinity Term

Now we are into Trinity Term, a reminder that the library will be open on Saturday mornings (9am-1pm) from 25th April to 20th June.

Reference section reorganisation

We are embarking on a project to rearrange the ground floor of the library over the next few months, and need your help to finalise what will move where.

Currently the ground floor has reference books in the centre shelves, and bibliographies along the left-hand wall. Once our reorganisation is complete, the centre shelves will contain a smaller and more focused reference section, and the left-hand wall will be used to house post-1920 volumes of the Congressional Record, which are currently in the stack. Guides to microfilm collections held in the library will be shelved separately by the microform cabinets.

The books in the reference and bibliographies sections have been marked with coloured dots on the spines, according to where we suggest they might go in order to make space for the Congressional Record. Please take a look at the collections, and if you disagree with our assessment, mark the dot with a cross. We will then consider those titles more carefully. Please note that we have erred on the side of dotting more books rather than fewer, so not everything dotted will necessarily move!

Dotting guide:

• Green dots indicate that a book will be moved upstairs to the main collection
• Yellow dots indicate that a book will be moved to the stack
• Pink dots indicate a book that will be kept on the ground floor as part of a research enquiry collection
• No dot means the book will stay as part of the new reference collection.
• Where all the volumes in a set or on that shelf will be moved together, only the first volume in the set/shelf has been dotted.

If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please get in touch via any of the usual methods!

Easter closing

The library will be closed Friday 10th - Monday 13th April inclusive for Easter. We will be open 9am-7pm as usual throughout the rest of the vacation.

New books for March

The list of new books received in March is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.

Reserved desks for DPhils

Starting from today, a number of the study carrels on the first floor of the library will be reserved for specific users. This has been requested by the RAI graduate community and fits with the aims of the RAI to provide more dedicated workspace for graduates. Other readers are welcome to sit at the desks if they are not in use, but should be prepared to move if the named user turns up.

We will monitor how this works closely once we get into Trinity Term as use of the library increases. We do not want to disadvantage library users, but also do want to provide as good a service as possible to the RAI/US Studies community.

New books for February

The list of books received in the library during February is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.