Easter Vacation Loans

We are almost at the end of Hilary Term and so the History Faculty Library will be moving into the vacation loan period. From Monday 4th March (8th week), all books issued from the library won’t need to be returned until Tuesday 23rd April (1st week, Trinity).

This also applies to any online renewals of current loans that take place from Monday 4th onwards. However, if there is a hold request on a book you have, it will need to be brought back by the original due date.

As always, you can check due dates and renew books through your SOLO account. And if you have any questions please come and speak to staff in the Radcliffe Camera or drop us an email at library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Happy Easter reading!

Christmas Vacation Loans

As we come to the end of Michaelmas Term, the History Faculty Library will be moving into the vacation loan period. From Monday 27th November (8th week), all books issued from the library won’t need to be returned until Tuesday 16th January (1st week, Hilary).

This also applies to any renewals of current loans that take place from Monday 27th onwards. However, if there is a hold request on a book you have, it will need to be brought back by the original due date.

As always, you can check due dates and renew books through your SOLO account. And if you have any questions please come and speak to staff in the Radcliffe Camera or drop us an email at library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Happy Christmas reading!

 

New Books Display – January 2023

Happy New Year to all returning and new readers! Currently on our New Books Display for the beginning of 2023, you can find a varied selection of the library’s latest additions.

Several of our newest books are featured below, along with a short summary of their contents. Please click on each title to be taken to its SOLO record.

On Revolution by political theorist Hannah Arendt presents a comparison of the French and American revolutions of the eighteenth century and the impact of these revolutions on our modern world. Underpinning this comparison is an in-depth exploration of the concept of revolution itself, as it has manifested throughout human history.

Next up we have a new English translation of Autumntide of the Middle Ages: A study of forms of life and thought of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in France and the Low Countries by the renowned Dutch historian Johan Huizinga. This influential book is considered a monumental work in its discussion of the ritual, culture, and thought of late medieval society in France and the Netherlands.

Here, There and Everywhere: The Foreign Politics of American Popular Culture is an edited anthology of articles exploring the impact of American popular culture on the wider world. In five sections, 23 authors from around the globe examine the historical background of American culture, the impact of Hollywood, popular music from jazz to rock ‘n’ roll and rap, and the popularity of as well as resistance to American popular culture in particular countries.

These items and many more can be found on the display located in the Upper Gladstone Link, and can be checked out at the Lower Camera Circulation Desk.

New eBooks are also available, several of which are featured below. Click to be taken to the SOLO link.

 

Disability History Hackathon, or…How to crowdsource over 200 websites!

To mark Disability History month, 24 volunteers assembled in the History Faculty on a cold and grey last day of term with an additional 12 joining the event via Teams. The mission? To find quality websites for a Bodleian Libraries’ guide on disability history resources. Prof Rob Iliffe opened the event by thanking all for contributing to the Faculty’s commitment to foster teaching and research in disability history.

Photo shows a tiered lecture theatre with participants looking towards the speaker.

Photo by Rachel D’Arcy Brown

After lunch and a handy crash course on advanced Google searching by Bethan Jenkins, students, researchers, librarians, and staff from the University’s Disability Advisory Service (DAS) settled down with their laptops to surf the web. Individuals were given broad topics to focus on. In just under two hours, an astonishing 226 resources were recorded, covering all periods and forms of disability. This is a fantastic achievement by the volunteer hackers and more than we could have hoped for.

The History Faculty Library trainee, Alice Shepherd, will next design a user-friendly version of the guide and add helpful contextual information. When completed at some point in 2023, the guide will be open to anybody in the world who is interested in disability history and looking for research resources. Watch this space!

Photo shows a laptop on a table in the History Fculty Common Room

Photo by Helen Young

As an event format, this jointly organised hybrid hackathon was a great success and will be a template for similar initiatives in the future. It used an inclusive, accessible, and collaborative approach to crowdsource quality resources for research and the public good. And it was fun! There may have been cake in between and drinks at the end for the survivors….

The effort to collate quality resources has not stopped. Individuals wishing to nominate a resource for the disability history guide are warmly invited to do so, using the input form at https://oxford.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/disability-history-hackathon-input-form.

Our thanks and gratitude also go to the History Faculty and their staff for supporting the event in many ways, and to all the library and DAS staff who helped with the organisation and delivery of the event.

Dr Sloan Mahone, History Faculty & Isabel Holowaty, Bodleian Libraries

Vacation Loans

With the end of Trinity Term fast approaching, readers are advised that vacation borrowing for the summer will commence on Wednesday 23rd June. Please note, this is 9th week, due to the History of the British Isles assessment for 2nd year History undergraduates. From this date onwards, HFL borrowing limits will increase to 30 items (short loans inclusive), with a due date of Monday 11th October.

We completely understand that this has been a challenging time for library users, so please don’t hesitate to get in contact at library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk with any queries about our collections or services.

Returning to our Reading Rooms: A Guide

From Monday 17th August, the Rad Cam will open its gates to readers once again for pre-booked reading room slots! If you haven’t done so already, you can reserve a slot up to 2 weeks in advance on our booking page. As well as desks in Upper and Lower Camera, we have a height-adjustable desk and Reader PCs available to book.

As you might expect, we have some new procedures and adjustments to help
keep you safe in the library, so here’s a guide to what to expect on your visit:

1. Please remember to bring your seat booking confirmation email, and most importantly your University/Reader card with you. As the Admissions office is currently not issuing Day Passes, we won’t be able to let you in without your card.

2. You will be asked to wear a face covering in the library, including at your desk, and unless exempt (see below*) staff will ask you to come back with a face covering if you arrive without one. We are following University guidance that wearing a face covering can aid alongside hand hygiene and social distancing in helping to keep us all safe in university buildings.

*Some readers will be exempt from wearing a face covering under government regulations, and this need for exemption may not be obvious.
Please be mindful of this if you see someone without a face covering in the library.
If this exemption applies to you, we can provide a sign to show at your desk if you would like to indicate that you’re exempt in this way, although this is completely optional.

3. You may need to queue on the path outside when you arrive at the library. Keep a distance of 2 metres between you and other readers when queuing, and for the duration of your visit.

4. When you arrive, show your booking confirmation to the member of staff at Reception, and they will give you your assigned desk number and directions to your seat. To help with distancing, most seats will not be in use; these will be indicated by a sign with a red cross. Staff will also be wearing face coverings subject to the procedure above, and we have installed protective screens at staff desks.

5. As well as hand sanitiser at the library entrance, we also have convenient sanitiser stations throughout the library. Please make regular use of these during your visit!

6. Want to find some books? As some spaces in our building are quite snug, please be cautious and considerate of other readers when browsing the shelves, ensuring a 2 metre distance. In Lower and Upper Camera, enter each bay on the right-hand side to reach the shelves, as there will be no reader desks in use on this side.

7. Want to borrow a HFL book? Due to the Bodleian’s membership of the HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service, which allows for access to selected ebooks during this period, we currently have license restrictions on the books we are allowed to loan. Please bring any books you wish to borrow to the issue desk, and staff will check whether they are loanable. Alternatively, you can use our Click & Collect service to order books from home; please note that this process can take 2-3 working days before books are ready for collection.

8. And finally, welcome back! If you have any questions in advance of your visit, you can email us at library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk, and if you’re unsure of anything in the library just ask a member of staff and we’ll be happy to help.

(Photos credit: George Kiddy & Gareth Evans)

 

 

Click and Collect at HFL

We’re very pleased to announce that your favourite History Faculty Library loan books are now available to borrow through the Bodleian’s Click & Collect Service!

Click & Collect is an emergency interim service designed to enable borrowing from selected Bodleian Libraries. The service will initially be offered by us, the Sackler Library, and the Social Science Library, and other libraries will introduce the service on a phased basis.

University members will be able to place requests on SOLO for items which would usually be available to borrow. Once logged in to SOLO, just look for the green button next to eligible books. Library staff will fetch the requests and once the items are ready for collection, borrowers will be emailed to invite them to select a date and time to collect the items. The safety of staff and readers is paramount in the design of the service; limitations will apply on which libraries are able to participate and when.

For full details see https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/using/clickandcollect

If you have any problems when placing a request, or any queries about the collection process, please give us an email at library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Spring Vacation Loans 2020

Our loan arrangements for the approaching vacation will be as follows:

  • Vacation loans will begin on Monday of 8th week (9th March) for standard loan books. Short loan books remain 2-day loans, until…
  • Thursday 12th March. Short loans become borrowable for the vacation, and you gain a 5 book bonus to your loan limit, so you can borrow 20 books in total.
  • Everything you borrow from us from this date onwards will be due on Monday of 1st week in Trinity Term (27th April)

If you have any queries at all about your loans, do get in touch with us at library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Happy vacation reading!

 

 

Vacation Loans start Monday!

Just a quick notification that winter vacation loans start on Monday 2nd December – borrow up to 15 books. Your limit increases to 20 books on Thursday 5th December and will include Short Loans. Everything will be due back on Monday 20th January (1st Week).

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If you decide you’d like to combine your mince pies with some festive reading, you can access access many of our resources electronically. Use your Single Sign On to make use of a range of ebookejournal and database subscriptions while away from Oxford.

Portable DVD drives available for loan!

In response to reader feedback, we’re pleased to announce that we now have two portable DVD drives available for loan. History students may be particularly interested in using these to consult items from the HFL DVD collection. The devices are quick and easy to use, compatible with most operating systems, and can be issued for two days (plus one online renewal). Please let us know if you have any feedback – we’re always looking to improve access to our collections.