Welcome to OIL!

Hello, and welcome to the first OIL blog post of the 19/20 academic year!

We are excited to meet all our new readers, and pleased to see people from previous years returning to us. Here are a few bits of news and a few reminders (we’ll try to keep it short; information overload is probably setting in already…)

Summer update

Returning readers will have noticed that the refurbishment which was supposed to happen this summer did not. We will instead be closed for a substantial part of next summer (2020) for the building works. More on that as and when we get information. We will be sure to put notices up around the library and add something on the Facebook page and in this blog if we get any firm dates or details.

Kate has rearranged the PJ section again, as part of the ongoing reclassification work. The shelves are all labelled, and it is only the area around the computers and in the middle of the library which has changed; the rest of the LC section is still largely in the same place it was last year.

The biggest change over the summer has been the moving of the periodicals – formerly on the shelves by the photocopiers – down to the basement, from where they will be eventually transferred to the BSF. Do ask staff if you can’t find something which was previously kept with this collection.

Housekeeping: a few reminders

Food and drink (except for water in bottles with a lid) are not allowed in the library. This is to prevent pests which might damage the books from being enticed in by crumbs. If you have a medical need to keep food with you, please speak to library staff. We are not trying to cause harm to anyone, but to prevent harm to the collections, which are, after all, why everyone is here.

All the shelves are labelled with the range of shelfmarks which they house, but if you cannot find something do feel free to ask the library staff. Most of the collection on the ground floor is classified under the Library of Congress Classification (LC), and is gradually being reclassified by Kate, who is in the library on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. The central section holds the remainder of the “old” classification with black labels, which duplicate to a certain extent the PJ and PK sections. If a shelfmark which you cannot find has a date at the end, it will be in the LC (white labelled) section. If it is short and does not have a date (i.e. PJ7700 Jam*) it will be in the “old” section.

*not a real shelfmark.

Korean books and books on Eastern Christianity are housed in the lower ground floor, down the stairs by the Library offices. These have a prefix on the record (KSL and ECL respectively) which identifies them as being part of these collections and not the general LC sequence.

The lower ground floor is also home to our South Asian and Hebrew collections, both of which use in-house classifications rather than LC. There is a plan of the library and the various locations of the different shelving schemes at the front desk, should anyone need one.

We have a Suggestions book by the front desk which readers can use if they think of a book or resource which we do not have but which they think we ought to have for the library. Our subject specialists look into all suggestions and reply to the original enquiry.

PCAS (Print, Copy & Scan) has changed its payment structure over the summer, so payments are now taken on a different platform – the new URL is on the website and on flyers which you can obtain from the library staff, so if you have bookmarked the old link you will need to change it for the new one.

Photocopiers are to be found by the Library Desk. Please do not remove paper from the photocopiers, and please let staff know if you notice that the paper has run out – we have a supply in the back office. Scrap paper is available in the box on the table next to the photocopiers; you are free to add to this if you have unwanted single-sided copies.

BSF (Book Storage Facility) books are delivered twice a day, Monday to Friday. If you order a book by 10.30 am it should arrive in the afternoon delivery.

OIL is on Facebook and Twitter, which is where we post urgent announcements such as problems with SOLO, or the van deliveries, or (rarely) closing the library early due to emergencies. You can find us at https://www.facebook.com/oiloxford/ and www.twitter.com/oiloxford.

Finally… ask us! There will always be a member of library staff at the desk during opening hours (if they are not at the desk they will be shelving in the library and should have left a note saying where they are) and we are here to help.

Have a wonderful Michaelmas Term!