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Re-organising the Library

September News

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(a little belated, with our apologies)

Arrivals and departures

In September the Oriental Institute Library welcomed Lydia Wright to the staff. Lydia is the Arabic Subject Specialist, and will be taking over that aspect of Dinah Manisty’s role, initially for a year. Regular readers will see her around the library, although she will also be working at Osney Mead for part of each week.

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Wednesday 30th was Dinah’s last day; with typical modesty she told us she didn’t want a party, so we threw one anyway – albeit a modest affair. Nobody gets out of OIL without a party! Dinah has worked here since 2010 and has been the Librarian in Charge for the last two years. We wish her a long and happy retirement and hope she visits us often.

 

Leaping into the fray with regards to management will be Jane Bruder, who some readers may know from the Sackler Library. Jane will be taking a more central role at OIL as part of a small restructuring in the wake of Dawn and Dinah’s departures but the core staff of the library and our remit will remain the same.

Book moves

Readers who regularly visit the basement will have noticed activity over the last couple of weeks as our colleagues from the Muller Library have been moving some of our Hebrew collections to their library as part of a re-organisation of collections.

If you are used to finding a particular item at OIL and it appears to have gone, do check with staff who will be able to check as to whether it has been moved.

Meanwhile Kate has been reorganising the Library of Congress books and moving them round into the area which was vacated by the old-sequence DS materials. This has involved a significant relocation of some popular sections; PK and PL are now in the far corner nearest to the Sackler Library and PJ is ranged along under the windows. Do ask if you cannot find anything; it is all still in sequence, just in different places!

 

Inductions – this Friday!

Finally, don’t forget that the Library Open Day is this Friday, 9th October. Everyone is always welcome, but we especially hope to see lots of new faces keen to find out all there is to know about the Library and its workings.

June Headlines

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First things first…

Most of our readers will hopefully have heard the good news by now, that the proposal to move the Oriental Institute Library’s collections into the Sackler Library has been withdrawn.

Library staff are delighted with the news and would like to extend an enormous

Thank you!!

to everyone who signed petitions, spoke up in various meetings and generally made lots of noise on our behalf. We realise that there were many reasons besides the ones we had for not taking the option to move us out of the Oriental Institute (not least the disruption it would have caused to the readers and staff of the Sackler), but the end result is just as important and just as welcome. We all look forward to remaining where we belong and to continuing to provide a friendly and efficient library service to all our users, be they from the faculty or from everywhere else in the world.

It really is an enormous relief, and it has been lovely to talk to many indignant regular readers who were unanimous in telling us how much they wanted us to stay put.

June Headlines

Well, there’s not much we can say to top that, is there? We have had a busy month in terms of the reader numbers, and hope that everyone’s exams went – or are still going – smoothly.

Automated Finalist notices went out last week, which resulted in a flurry of readers bringing in books and paying off fines. If you still have items to return, please do so before your card expires as you may find it harder to get into the building afterwards!

For other borrowers we are now in the Vacation Loans period; all books borrowed from the Library will be due for return on the 13th October (Tuesday of 1st week) unless your card expires before that, in which case they will be due the day before the date on your card.

Readers who are in on Thursdays and Friday evenings will have met our new colleague, Vasiliki Giannopoulou, who started working with us at the beginning of June. Vasiliki comes to us with experience of the Library of Congress Classification as she also works at the History Faculty Library. We would like to welcome her to OIL, and we look forward to her pointing out all the weirdly shelved books in the LC section!

On the subject of LC classification, Kate will be doing some moving over the next few days to accommodate the ridiculously crowded DR (Turkish History) section. These books (formerly in DS 162 and DS 165 in the old sequence) have taken over what was previously a relatively small area and the reorganising of shelves from PJ back to DS in order to make room is necessary as Kate was finding it was taking longer to make space for the reclassified books than it was to reclassify them in the first place.

A larger move, which will see all the LC books shifted round to the empty spaces left by the reclassification of the DS section, will take place towards the end of the summer.

Finally, advance warning that the SunRays (the computers by the windows which don’t require a log-in) are being retired on July 10th. The good news, however, is that they will be replaced by a similar system the following week. We’ll put something on here or on the Facebook page when that has happened.

 

 

March Headlines

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Oops!

Yes, we know… this is a bit of a belated post, but in our defence it seemed a little redundant to post on the blog on the Thursday before Easter given that the Library was closed.

March was a productive month for the Library staff, even as most of the students drifted away for the Easter vacation.

The PCAS photocopiers underwent a software upgrade at the start of the vacation which has altered the interface slightly, but they still work as they did before. As far as we know the odd issues which were encountered when the upgrade occurred (none of which affected us) have been resolved, but do let us know if there are any problems.

Natalija has been barcoding some of the uncatalogued Japanese books in the basement, which will be a help when people borrow them as previously we have had to create records from scratch, which can result in a bit of a wait at the desk.

Meanwhile Kate has been doing some shuffling round in the Library of Congress section again, too. The “D” and “DS” sections in particular were becoming heavily congested as that is the area where she is adding to the shelves with the reclassified materials, and it had reached “critical mess” by the end of term. She has moved things around in the “B” and “BP” section, reducing some of the over-estimated growth space there to make space in the “D” and “DS” areas. Please be aware that many books in this section will have therefore shifted position (sometimes up to 20 shelves away from where they were!). The labels on the ends of the bays have been adjusted accordingly, but do ask staff if you have any problems finding anything. The Library of Congress shelves now look a lot less crowded, and Kate is optimistic that she won’t need to move things again until at least the end of the summer vacation!

February news and announcements for Easter

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The eagle-eyed amongst our readers may have noticed that there was no news blog at the end of January. This was because we decided that it would seem excessive to blog twice in a week – having announced the results of the Stapler competition a few days earlier (and besides which that was the most exciting thing which happened in January!).

February has been busy for us in terms of readers; it is always gratifying to see the library being well used! With this in mind, however, we do have a few little reminders for people.

Firstly, please remember that you are allowed bottles of water in the library but other drinks are NOT allowed as they could potentially damage the books if spilled. We will remove drinks if found on desks, and they can be claimed when you leave.

Secondly, as the library is busy and the turnover of books is quite high at the moment, the library staff are endeavouring to maintain a more regular shelving routine, including clearing desks in the mornings and doing a whizz round in the afternoons so that there is not too much accumulation. We hope that this will help to solve the perennial problem of readers not finding books on the shelves because they are on desks. Readers are reminded that you are permitted to keep books on a desk to be used the following day as long as you fill in one of the paper slips provided around the library for that purpose (if the area where you are working has run out, please inform the staff and we will print more). Books left with out-of-date slips (i.e. not the previous day’s date) will be reshelved.

Thirdly, please do not leave books from the BSF on desks at the end of the day. These books belong to the Bodleian and should be returned to the staff desk so that they can be put back on the reserve in the office. We receive a daily lapse-list of BSF books which should be sent back, and endeavour to keep on top of this, so keeping all the books in one place greatly facilitates this. If you wish to keep BSF books for longer than the initial week, you can renew them on SOLO. The main reason a renewal would not be allowed would be if someone else had requested the same book, either to OIL or to another of the Bodleian reading rooms. Please note that if you do not remember to renew, and the book is returned to the BSF, there may be a delay of at least a few days before it is re-ingested at the BSF and can be returned to the library. Unfortunately this is something over which we have no control, so it is essential that readers make sure that their books are promptly renewed (or let us know so we can do it for them in an emergency).

And fourthly, a further plea; if you have used a book and are not absolutely sure where it came from on the shelves, please do not panic and shove it into the most convenient space in roughly the right section! We find mis-shelved books on a daily basis and it does make everyone’s lives harder if the item they want is somewhere other than where it should be. A book can effectively vanish if it is shelved out of sequence, and although we do regular moves which do pick up these situations it helps us immensely if people don’t put things in the wrong place to start with. If you are not absolutely sure where you got a book from, please leave it either on one of the reshelving points between the desks on the right-hand (window) side, or on the trollies near the staff desk.

And finally, advance warning that the library will close for Easter on Thursday 2nd April and re-open on Tuesday 7th. Vacation loans will start next week, with books due back on the 28th April.

 

 

 

November Headlines and Reminders for December

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November Headlines

November saw things settling down a little from the beginning of Term, but we have still seen many new faces and enjoyed meeting all the various people who are now using the Library. As always, do ask us if you can’t find something; we know that the set-up here can be a little confusing!

Term is still upon us for the next week, so we would encourage anyone who hasn’t to enter our “Name the Stapler” competition, a winner of which will be announced on Friday.

Vacation Loans are now in operation, having started on Saturday 28th November; books borrowed from then on will be due back on the 20th January (Tuesday of 1st week).

 

December Reminders

We are running a Research Skills Toolkit session on Thursday 4th December – there are flyers at the front desk for anyone who is interested in attending and learning more about this valuable resource.

We will be doing some reorganising in the Library of Congress section over the vacation, moving books up into the spaces vacated as Kate has been reclassifying the collections, so may be making a bit of noise and/or leaving the desk for periods of time, but there will be someone around in the office and we will leave a note telling readers where we are. This is essential work – there is no more room in certain sections due to the volume of material being added – so we beg your patience for a few weeks until we can get things back to something resembling order.

And finally, the Library closes for Christmas on the 23rd December at 5pm, re-opening on Monday January 5th at 9am.

 

September Headlines

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September at OIL is often the calm before the storm. Before the return of the students and researchers who make the library so much more lively during the winter months, before the chilly weather sets in and the nights begin to lengthen.

This September, however, we have been rather busy. The ongoing reclassification project for the David Reading Room in the Weston Library – now open and looking splendid – has been occupying various members of staff, who have been valiantly rearranging the hastily moved books into their proper Library of Congress order. There is still a way to go, but they already look very smart. Sadly, photographs are not permitted as the architect has requested that no pictures are made available until the Grand Opening next March, so you will have to take our word for it.

Meanwhile at OIL (where photos are permitted), we celebrated Dawn’s 10-year anniversary with an amazing cake:

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(thanks to Dinah Manisty for arranging this, and to Gillian Evison for the champagne!)

Kate has been moving the LC books again, this time into the space which was vacated by the folios when they were shuffled down the library to their current location. She began this small move on one of the days when we were closed for St Giles’ Fair, and was suitably perturbed by the bloodcurdling screams emanating from the rides on the other side of Blackfriars!

The Library reclassification project has been carrying on now that we are no longer doing so work for the Weston materials. We are happy to announce that the totals for the academic year 2013-14 are:

1993 shelfmarks, and a total of 2515 actual items, which reflects the fact that there have been a number of large sets reclassified over the year, including at least one 20 volume set, a couple which numbered around 15 volumes and numerous 10-volume sets, all of which are now to be found in the Library of Congress section. If you have problems finding anything which has moved, as ever, do ask the staff.

So, next comes October! The Library Open Day falls on Friday 10th October this year, and we look forward to meeting our new intake and seeing some old faces.

June News and Summer Announcements

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First and foremost, a fond farewell to the last of our departing finalists – and a last ditch plea to those of you who have outstanding fines to please pay them off before you go. While the University is not able to prevent you from graduating because of outstanding library fines, there is still the possibility of repeat offenders being referred to the Proctors, and nobody really wants that.

June has been busy for us for various reasons; as well as the general library busyness of the last few weeks of Exams, we have been refurbishing the staff areas. Dawn and Dinah’s office was redecorated at the end of May and all the staff offices now have nice new desks and other furniture which makes for a far more efficient office environment than the previous ad-hoc arrangement of long planks and filing cabinets.

The upgrade of the door entry system was also an ongoing situation during June, but it appears that most people’s cards are now working on the front and Library doors. We will continue to add orange card-holders to the system manually, as we used to on the old one, but blue cards should work automatically. Anyone experiencing problems may need to get an updated card if theirs is too old for the proximity technology, but do ask us and we will endeavour to help.

Vacation Loans have been in force since the middle of the month, so anything borrowed by members with a normal (i.e. non-staff) membership will be checked out until 14th October (Tuesday of First Week, Michaelmas Term). This will only not apply in the event that a readers’ card expires before this point, in which case the due date will be the card expiry date.

Summer Announcements

There are various changes afoot in the Oriental Libraries this summer. While OIL remains constant – our opening hours are the same as for Term: 0915-1900 during the week and 10-4pm on Saturdays – a great deal of change is taking place elsewhere. The Chinese Studies Library will be moving out of the Clarendon Institute in Walton Street to new accommodations in the Dickson Poon Building in the grounds of St Hugh’s College of Canterbury Road from July; and the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies will be moving into the Clarendon Institute in September, from their current base at Yarnton Manor. The website is here: http://www.ochjs.ac.uk/about/announcement/

The Chinese move in particular does concern OIL, inasmuch as we will be the place for people to return any borrowed CSL books during their period of closure, which begins at the end of Friday 5th July. We do not have a definite opening date for the new  Bodleian K B Chen China Centre Library at present due to the logistical complications of the move, but there should be regular updates on the CSL pages of the website: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csl/chinese-studies-library-move.

Meanwhile staff at OIL will be assisting Weston Library colleagues in preparations for the movement of the Oriental materials from the current SCRR at the RSL to the new reading rooms; we will update when we know more details, but this should not affect the general running of the Library during this time.

Otherwise we anticipate a fairly quiet summer – bar the inevitable moving round of the Library of Congress collection into the space vacated by the reclassified items!

 

 

May Headlines and Announcements

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It has been all go at the Oriental Institute Library this May!

The usual busy exam-time activity has been a real contrast after a relatively quiet April, and we hope that everyone is finding the Library a conducive area for studying and revision. As ever, if you do find that people are talking or otherwise disturbing you, do let the Library staff know and we will try to resolve the issue.

Two exciting pieces of news for May: firstly, readers may not be aware, although we did put an announcement on the Facebook Page, that bottles of water are now allowed into the Library, in line with other libraries which have also relaxed their policies. We would ask that coffee/soft drinks NOT be taken in, and food is still strictly forbidden, but water is fine, as long as it is kept in a sealed bottle or flask and the lid kept tightly in place when not in use.

Secondly, we have our beautiful display of items from the Love and Devotion Exhibition which are still available to buy. Please ask at the Library desk if you would like to purchase something lovely at a reduced price!

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Regular users will be aware by now that our door-entry system is currently undergoing a refurbishment. The sensors on the door to the library and the front door of the building are currently awaiting a part to make them work properly, but once they do all blue University of Oxford card holders will have automatic access to the Library during opening hours, so no more queues at the start of Michaelmas Term! (This is probably more exciting for us than for the readers, we realise…) We *will* still need to add people to the Circulation application for the Library, but this is a quick and painless process and can be done whenever someone wishes to borrow a book.

Summer announcements

Readers who also use the Chinese Studies Library will be aware by now that the CSL will be closed for a period over the Long Vacation while the collections are moved to the new Bodleian K.B. Chen China Centre Library at St Hugh’s College.

During this transitional period, expected to last from the 4th July to the 4th August, CSL books which have been borrowed should be returned to OIL; we will arrange for them to be re-homed when the China Centre has opened again.

Details can be found at the CSL website:  http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csl and on the Library Guide: http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodleian-csl.

As this is still a bit of a way off I will post a reminder in our June Headlines post, just to make sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


April News

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April Headlines

April was a busy month for the Library! Various subtle changes have been afoot while most of our readers were off enjoying the Easter Vacation (and yes, we know a lot of you were revising for exams).

Book Moves

Most obvious are the adjustments which we have made to the shelving arrangements in the Library of Congress Section, where the large folio-sized books have been moved to the back walls of the two last bays at the far end of the section towards the windows. This move is designed to allow the rest of the LC section to gradually move towards that end of the library and round to occupy the space currently used for the old D sequence, which is gradually diminishing as Kate works on it. Some of the LC books are now on the shelves under the windows, in the space where the last of the BPs were, and the sequence will continue to move up as and when the space is available.

The folios will hopefully remain where they are for the foreseeable future, when the space they occupy is full we will have to have a rethink but for now there should be enough room for the remainder of the Fol. DS section which is still to be done. Space left by the folios will be used to make room in the more congested sections of the rest of the LC sequence, so please don’t worry about a few empty shelves! Nothing stays like that for long…

Computers

As those of you who use the Reader PCs will note, during the vacation they were upgraded to Windows 7. The basic functionality should remain the same but the appearance will be slightly changed.

Staff PCs have also now all been upgraded, too, so hopefully there will be no further disruptions, although we did have a bit if a wait for some extra applications to be installed. This work was necessitated by the fact that Windows XP, which all our computers had been running on up until now, is no longer supported by Microsoft, occasioning the IT department to have to upgrade the whole University of Oxford in a short time. Given how much they had to do, we are grateful that everything appears to have gone as smoothly as it did!

Other News

No other news right now (and I am rushing to get this out as it’s rather late), but just a reminder that we are open as usual on the next Bank Holiday (May 26th).

March Headlines and Announcements for April

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From a Library point of view March has been quite a busy month, despite the end of Term and the subsequent emptying-out as many of our readers leave for the vacation.

The week of the 10th-14th was a SCONUL week, when we collect statistics of library attendance and the nature of our enquiries; if any of you were wondering why we were wandering the library counting you at particular times of day, that was why!

We had to contend with the visit from the men who were putting in new windows for two weeks at the end of the month, both in the Library itself and also in the back offices, along with a nice new fire door at the end of the building facing towards Blackfriars’. I hope that the plastic sheeting, banging around and persistent odour of glue were not too much of a distraction for too many people. Sadly they gave us minimal notice before the work began, we knew they were coming, but their schedule was somewhat of a mystery until they said “we’re coming next week”. We were just glad that they were so quick, and also that they managed to at least arrive now while it is vacation and not during exams, and we are sure that the additional easily-opened windows will help with the stuffiness which we sometimes suffer in the summer months. Sadly your humble blogger did not manage to get any action photos of the windows being done; we apologise for this oversight.

There is also an ongoing scheme to upgrade all the University computers still using the Windows XP operating system to Windows 7, which has seen several members of staff already upgraded. This is essential work as there will be no support from Microsoft for XP after the end of April. The programme of works will also affect the Library computers for readers, but we have yet to receive confirmation of the dates when this will happen. We will endeavour to give as much notice as possible of any times when the reader PCs will be out of action. Please keep checking the Facebook Page for further information.

Announcements for April:

The Easter closure of the Library will begin on Thursday 17th April and run through to Tuesday April 22nd, when the Library will open as usual at 0915. We will post signs nearer the time to remind people.

Vacation Loans are currently in operation, with all books borrowed due back on the 29th April (Tuesday of 1st Week).

Finally, the reclassification has once again necessitated a bookmove to make up the space once occupied by the BP section. This will be taking place over the next few weeks and will result in some noise, although we will try to keep this to a minimum. If items you are used to finding in a particular place have moved, do come and ask us where they are!