Monthly Archives: July 2014

Wellcome Library and Jisc announce partners in 19th century medical collections digitisation project

The Wellcome Library and Jisc have announced nine partner institutions whose 19th-century book collections will be digitised and added to the UK Medical Heritage Library (UK MHL), an online resource for the study of the history of medicine and related sciences.

Six university libraries have joined the partnership – University College London, University of Leeds, University of Glasgow, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Kings College London and University of Bristol – along with the libraries of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

The project’s focus is on books and pamphlets from the 19th century that are on the subject of medicine or its related disciplines. This will include works relating to the medical sciences, consumer health, sport and fitness, as well as different kinds of medical practice, from phrenology to hydrotherapy.

Approximately 15 million pages of printed books and pamphlets from all ten partners will be digitised over a period of two years and will be made freely available to researchers and the public under an open licence. The content will be available on multiple platforms to broaden access, including the Internet Archive, the Wellcome Library and Jisc Historic Books.

This is an exciting development for those interested in the history of medicine, and for the Wellcome Library forms part of a larger ambition to digitise and make freely available over 50 million pages of historical medical books, archives, manuscripts and journals by 2020.

Opening hours w/b 28/07/14

Our opening hours for the week beginning Monday 28/07 will be as follows:

Monday, 2.15pm-4.30pm
Tuesday-Friday, 2.15pm-5pm

Boiler works in the Unit are ongoing, so please be aware that access to the Resource Room is currently restricted. However, everything in the LCC Main Library is available for consultation.

As ever, please get in touch in advance of any visit, or if you require more information about access to materials. We look forward to welcoming you back!

Library Reopening on Monday 21st July!

The boiler works in the Unit are still progressing, but the library will be re-opening on Monday 21st July, at 2.15pm. On that afternoon there will still be considerable disruption as staff set up all the equipment that had to go into storage for the duration of the works, so we ask you please to bear with us on that day. Additionally, heating work will be continuing throughout the rest of the Unit for a few more weeks, so there is a warning of some noise and disruption until that is finished.

Our opening times for next week will be:
Monday, 2.15pm – 4.30pm (with some moving and disruption)
Tuesday, 2.15pm-5pm
On Wednesday the library will be unstaffed
Thursday and Friday, 2.15pm-5pm.

These times are still subject to change should any more matters arise with the works over the weekend, but we hope to see you in the library soon!

Works update, Library closed until 21/7/14

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, the heating and boiler works have overrun, and we are now unable to open next week as planned. We now hope to open on Monday the 21st of July at 2.15pm. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and will keep this blog up to date with any further news.

In the meantime, the following other libraries with history of science, medicine and technology provision will be open during the summer:
Radcliffe Science Library http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/science

Bodleian Library Upper Reading Room http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/finding-resources/rooms/urr

History Faculty Library http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history

Please continue to visit this blog and our twitter account @WelLibOxford for updates on the works or any changes in dates.