Christmas tree at the Law Bod
Michaelmas Term has just flown by and so to our readers who are heading away from Oxford this week, have a great Christmas break. For those of you who are staying in Oxford, we are open until 5pm on the 22nd December, although our opening hours will be changing on Monday 4th December to Monday – Friday 09.00 – 19.00, Saturday 10.00 – 16.00, closed on Sunday. If you need to know the opening times of any of the Bodleian Libraries, check on the library homepage, you can get that information from this page https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries.
Are you planning to keep on reading over the Christmas Vacation? If so, here are some hints and tips:
Do take a look at your reading lists before you leave Oxford and check that you know how to access as much as possible online.
Don’t rely on just one database! Make sure that you are confident using both Westlaw and Lexis+. There is guidance here for Westlaw (you need to log into Westlaw first for this link to work) and here for Lexis+. If you are needing to access any of the legal databases, information about remote access can be found on our list of legal databases here https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries/law/legal-databases or look for those details on SOLO. Alternatively, come and ask for help from the Library staff before you leave Oxford or email law.library@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you have already left.
If you haven’t already it is worth sorting out VPN access via IT Services here https://help.it.ox.ac.uk/vpn-help to aid accessing resources when ‘off campus’.
Not everything is on a database! Where possible, we have scanned some of this material and put it on our Law Bod 4 Students Canvas site here https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/226789 , just go to the relevant subject tile to check. If you are lucky enough to have a fully linked ORLO list, make full use of all the linked material.
Do you love hard copy? You may be able to borrow some key texts from your college library for the entire vacation. It’s worth asking and finding out.
If you need to read a chapter that is not available online, and you can’t borrow the book, remember that scanning is free in the Library. You will need your Bodleian logon and password to log onto the scanners in the Library (you can set/reset your password here).
There is also a Bodleian Libraries scanning service but remember that if you are still in Oxford it is always quicker to come to the Library and make the scan yourself.
Coming Soon
If you have one eye on Hilary Term already, we have a project coming up to help you get to know the Law Bod a bit better. The Bodleian Law Library will introduce a new revolving display in the main reading room, guiding readers through its shelf-mark system while highlighting interesting moments from each fortnight in (legal) history. Look out for ‘Letters of the Law’, from Hilary term 2024!
Have wonderful holidays!
