Monthly Archives: August 2023

Books moving back to the RSL

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After being out of the building for over two years the books and staff of the Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) will be returning to our newly refurbished building for October 2023. Can you tell we’re excited?

Moving the books from the Vere Harmsworth Library (VHL) will take some time so we’re going to begin packing up our books in early September. From 4th September until the end of the month we will be packing and moving books from the VHL to the RSL.

Graphic of library shelves. Three of the shelves are nearly empty and there are cardboard boxes in front of the shelves.

Book fetching service

During that time the book you are looking for may not be on our shelves. To help with this we will be operatine a fetching service. You can ask the staff at the desk or email enquiries.rsl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to get our staff to fetch a book from the boxes for you. As this is a time consuming process, it will be faster for readers to order books from Offste or get them from another library so we will not fetch books that meet those criteria.

Disruption

During the book move there may be some noise disruption in the VHL particularly on the 2nd floor. We will try to keep the disturbance to a minimum.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Improving our websites with your help

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The Research Data Oxford and Open Access Oxford websites both provide University members with essential information and resources to help with publishing and managing research. We are currently undertaking projects to improve both these websites so that information is shown in a more user-friendly way and that the content on both sites is aligned with the needs of students, researchers, administrators and academics.

Cat paw on computer keyboard.

At this stage, we would particularly like to invite researchers and research support staff for their feedback on both websites. Participants will meet with an external consultant via videoconference. The usability testing does not involve technical questions, and it is not a test of your knowledge or skills: it is about understanding how the websites help (or hinder) researchers and research support staff in their work. It doesn’t matter if you have little or no experience of Open Access and/or research data management: it’s important to get feedback from people who are new to the topics as well as those with more expertise.

The aims of the tests are to:

  • Understand what users want and what’s needed in order for them to meet Research Data Management/Open Access obligations
  • Determine how well the websites fit into established workflows
  • Consider and prioritise enhancements to the websites to improve the user experience

The user testing sessions will be recorded, and these recordings will be securely stored for a reasonable time by the Bodleian Libraries for future reference to support website improvements.

When is this happening?

There are two rounds of user testing:

  • 1st round in September 2023
  • 2nd round in November 2023

You will be needed for one round of user testing only – i.e. September OR November, at a time convenient for you. The testing session will take a maximum of 90 minutes to cover both websites.

If you are interested in participating, please email Tony Langley.