Category Archives: ebooks

Check out our resource of the month

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The RSL has a huge collection of physical and electronic materials. We have so much that we wanted to shine a spotlight on some of our items whether recently added or an existing collection item. The resources are recommended by our knowledgeable subject librarians who are excited to show off parts of the collection for their subject.

Text that says resource of the month over small images of books, computer equipment and scientific equipment

This month’s selector is:

Rachel Scanlon

Photograph of Rachel Scanlon

Rachel has selected the Lyell Collection.

Brief Description

The Lyell Collection, created to mark the Geological Society of London’s 200th anniversary in 2007 and named after Charles Lyell, the eminent nineteenth-century geologist, represents one of the largest integrated collections of online Earth science literature available. It comprises the Society’s journal titles, Special Publications and key book series and allows cutting edge science to sit alongside important historical material with full-text archives back to 1811.

Natural Bridges at Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor, Oregon USA

View through Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah USA to arid/desert valley beyond

Who is this useful for?

This is an essential resource for researchers and students in the field of Geosciences including geochemistry, geology and petroleum geoscience.

How can I access it?

This collection is available through SOLO. To access it off campus use the VPN or sign in to the journal platform with your Single Sign On (SSO).

Check out our resource of the month

Posted on by
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The RSL has a huge collection of physical and electronic materials. We have so much that we wanted to shine a spotlight on some of our items whether recently added or an existing collection item. The resources are recommended by our knowledgeable subject librarians who are excited to show off parts of the collection for their subject.

Text that says resource of the month over small images of books, computer equipment and scientific equipment

This month’s selector is:

Alessandra Vetrugno

Photograph of Alessandra Vetrugno holding a laptop

Alessandra Vetrugno

Ale has selected the Institute of Physics evidence-based acquisitions (EBA) ebook collection

Brief Description

The institute of Physics (IOP) is the leading scientific society for Physics in the UK and Ireland. It supports the promotion and advancement of Physics around the world. The IOP EBA ebook collection provides DRM-free access to around 800 ebooks published by the Institute of Physics including high-quality monographs on key areas in physics and shorter texts that cover rapidly advancing topics.

We have access to this collection under an EBA model. This means that we are able to access all titles in the collection for one year and at the end of our subscription we’ll retain the titles that have been used the most.

Abstract illustration of waves and particles

This photo by Gerd Altmann is licensed under CC0 Public Domain

Who is this useful for?

This resource is essential for Physics students and researchers, from undergraduate level up to academics. It is also relevant for researchers in other areas with an interest for Physics-related research and education.

How can I access it?

The IOP EBA collection is accessible from the Oxford Libraries catalogue SOLO. Individual titles can also be also accessed from SOLO. To access it off-campus use the VPN or sign into SOLO with your Single Sign On (SSO).

Our access to the IOP EBA ebook collection is valid until the 10th May 2024.

If you want to know more about searching titles included in the IOP EBA, you can talk to one of our friendly Subject Librarians! 😊

New online reference resource – Bergey’s Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria

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We are pleased to announce that Oxford University members now have access to the online version of Bergey’s Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria (BMSAB). This is a microbiology reference work aimed at undergraduates, graduate students and researchers. Bergey’s offers the most complete and authoritative published description of bacterial and archaeal diversity. Now available online for the first time, this edition contains over 1, 750 articles providing descriptions of the taxonomy, systematics, ecology, physiology and other biological properties of all described prokaryotic taxa. Further information about the book is available via the publisher’s website.

Institute of Physics ebooks

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The Bodleian Libraries now has access to around 800 Physical Sciences ebooks from the Institute of Physics. Access will run until May 10, 2023 and include new titles as they are published. After this date, titles on reading lists or heavily used will be permanently retained. Content is DRM-free (so readers can print and save text as needed) and searchable at chapter level. Titles are hosted on the IOPscience platform, alongside IOP journal content

Titles include:

  • Research and reference texts including monographs, handbooks and edited collections
  • Texts for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level students
  • Accessible broad interest titles often taking a multidisciplinary approach

Thousands of new ebooks across science and medicine

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We aim to build collections that reflect a diverse academic community and breadth of scholarship, and to support the University’s flexible and inclusive approach to teaching. To this end, we aim to continue to fill gaps in our current online collections, meet student expectations for 24/7 remote access to key materials, and address previously under-represented areas and revisions to the academic curricula.

Since March 2020, there have been considerable increases in ebook provision for both taught students and researchers across MSD and MPLS. Additional funds were made available to us during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were used to provide enhanced access to ebooks as well as expand ejournal access.

This expansion of ebook access included:

  • large collections from major publishers aimed at students and researchers across science and biomedicine
  • one-off purchases of individual texts available in perpetuity
  • some individual titles which require annual subscriptions

These include key individual ebook titles on undergraduate reading lists or individually requested, and also major reference works such as Encyclopaedia of the Life Sciences and Birds of the World. We have also acquired access to over 60,000 additional online monographs from the Springer and Elsevier ebook platforms.

There has also been a substantial increase in uptake of ORLO (Oxford Reading Lists Online) in MSD and MPLS, and staff have made great efforts to identify material newly available online, and online alternatives to reading list texts only available in print.

Very high usage levels are being reported for some these new titles and collections. For example, there were 8,000 chapter downloads from Berg’s Biochemistry online in just 6 months, and the big increases in downloads from our Elsevier and Springer ebook collections can be seen in these graphs:

Springer ebook usage from February 2021

Elsevier ebook usage from March 2021

New publisher ebook collection subscriptions in science and medicine:

MSD ebooks now available:

  • 265 key individual ebook titles in direct support of undergraduate reading lists – titles catalogued individually on SOLO

Packages:

MPLS ebooks now available:

  • 450 key individual ebook titles in direct support of undergraduate reading lists – titles catalogued individually on SOLO

Packages:

New databases and reference works:

Springer ebook collections purchased in perpetuity:

  • Earth and Environmental Science (2017 and 2020-21)* – titles catalogued individually on SOLO
  • Mathematics and Statistics (2017-21) – titles catalogued individually on SOLO
  • Chemistry and Materials Science (2017-21) – titles catalogued individually on SOLO
  • Springer Medicine (2017-2021) – titles catalogued individually on SOLO

Note:

All these resources are accessible via SOLO when logged in using your SSO. Direct links to publishers’ platforms should also work when logged into Bodleian Libraries and Departmental computers, or when using the University VPN.

*2018 and 2019 already purchased

New online resources for MPLS

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Physical sciences

Life and environmental sciences

CABI titles

While you’re away from Oxford

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The Bodleian Libraries have an extensive range of online resources to enable you to continue your studies away from Oxford.

SOLO

Filter results on SOLO by Online Resources to find resources that can be accessed remotely – look for the green Online access icon. University members can access these anywhere in the world when logged into SOLO with a Single Sign-On (SSO) ID.

E-books

The Bodleian Libraries have a large number of e-books which can be accessed via SOLO. We also have a guide to accessing and using e-books.

If you can’t find a book available as an e-book, then we may be able to purchase one. Complete the book recommendation form to put in your request.

Reading lists

Oxford Reading Lists Online (ORLO) allows students can access up-to-date reading lists 24/7 from a range of devices, check location and availability of listed items and access complete texts where available. ORLO can be accessed through Canvas or at http://readinglists.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ by logging in with your Oxford Single Sign-On ID (SSO).

More information on ORLO

E-journals

We have access to over 118,000 e-journals titles which can be found via SOLO or our E-journals A-Z list.

The Bodleian Libraries now have a service called Browzine to provide easier access to online journal articles. BrowZine provides access to journals licensed by the Bodleian Libraries from compatible publishers from 2005 onwards. Articles can be accessed directly from SOLO or from the BrowZine website. There are also Browzine apps for Android and iOS, and a Chrome extension which provides links to full-text content of articles while searching the web.

Readers can save articles to a personal library, set up alerts for new issues of journals, and export articles to bibliographic management tools (including Mendeley and EndNote).

More information on BrowZine

Databases

You can access over 1,300 databases across a broad range of subject areas via SOLO and also via Databases A-Z.

Free resources

There is a useful selection of free online resources at https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/e-resources/free-resources. You can also check LibGuides for subject-specific resources accessible online.

For e-resources available to everyone filter by Open Access at the top of the left hand column of search results in SOLO.

New online collections

Since the Bodleian Libraries closed in March, staff have made every effort to obtain as many titles accessible online as possible. Collections we’ve recently acquired include:

Online resources

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The primary tool for accessing electronic items available across the University’s libraries is SOLO. Filter results by Online Resources to find electronic resources that can be accessed remotely – look for the green Online access icon. University members can access these anywhere in the world when logged into SOLO with a Single Sign-On (SSO) ID.

E-books

The Bodleian Libraries have a large number of e-books which can be accessed via SOLO. We also have a guide to accessing and using e-books.

Reading list books are made available online wherever possible. These can be accessed via SOLO and also via ORLO.

If you can’t find a book available as an e-book, then we may be able to purchase one. Complete the book recommendation form to put in your request.

E-journals

We have access to over 118,000 e-journals titles which can be found via SOLO or our E-journals A-Z list.

The Bodleian Libraries have recently introduced a new service called Browzine to provide easier access to online journal articles. BrowZine provides access to journals licensed by the Bodleian Libraries from compatible publishers from 2005 onwards. Articles can be accessed directly from SOLO or from the BrowZine website (https://browzine.com/libraries/1704/subjects). There are also Browzine apps for Android and iOS, and a Chrome extension which provides links to full-text content of articles while searching the web.

Readers can also set up a personal account which allows saving articles to a personal library, exporting articles to bibliographic management tools (including Mendeley and EndNote), sharing articles on social media and setting up alerts for new issues of journals.

For more information, please see https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/BrowZine/home.

Databases

You can access over 1,300 databases across a broad range of subject areas via SOLO and also via Databases A-Z.

Free resources

There is a useful selection of free online resources at https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/e-resources/free-resources. You can also check your subject LibGuide for subject-specific resources accessible online.

For e-resources available to everyone filter by Open Access at the top of the left hand column of search results in SOLO.

Online access to resources from HathiTrust

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Update: HathiTrust access ends on 30 September

Emergency online access to materials provided by HathiTrust while Bodleian Libraries sites were closed will end on 30 September 2020. Records on SOLO have been updated to advise readers of this. After access ends, books that have been available through HathiTrust will be available for borrowing again if they are loanable copies.

The Bodleian Libraries currently has Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) from HathiTrust, which provides access to 1.5 million in-copyright items and millions more public domain items available directly from the HathiTrust website and via clear links provided on relevant records in SOLO. The HathiTrust is a not-for-profit collaboration of academic and research libraries across the world and a major digital repository.

Through this arrangement, University members are able to access full text digital copies of books which exist in physical form in the libraries but cannot currently be accessed. Readers can download, in full, whole volumes of public domain books and readers with print disabilities will be able to request full book downloads on copyrighted items via ARACU.

University card holders can log in to the HathiTrust website by following the yellow login button at top right and entering Oxford into the box. Select University of Oxford to be redirected to the SSO login screen. You will need to click on the “Check Out” button on the orange bar at the top of the page for full access to specific items.