Are you an OU history undergraduate unsure how to format references for footnotes or bibliographies, and don’t know where to turn? Then you can drop in to the staff office in the Upper Radcliffe Camera on any Wednesday during Full Term between 1-2pm, to get some quickfire 1-to-1 advice on the best resources to help you.
We can help with:
Where to find History Faculty guidance on citation and referencing
How to use reference management software
Where to check citation style conventions for particular source types
This is not a proofreading service, and we can’t check or create your footnotes or bibliographies, but we can show you where to find answers to your referencing conundrums. And we can try to show why referencing doesn’t have to be a source of anxiety!
24th January marks International Day of Education, with the theme for 2026 focusing on AI and education. To mark the occasion, our HFL book display highlights some historical research on access to education, and the development and dissemination of knowledge. Among these books are historical studies on segregated education, the impacts of war on learning, and AI technology in the classroom.
Alongside these historical perspectives, these books invite us to consider how today’s debates around artificial intelligence fit into longer histories of educational change and technological innovation. From the printing press to digital learning, new tools and perspectives have continually reshaped education and how we share knowledge. By exploring these books, we can place contemporary discussions about AI in education within a broader historical and social context of equitable access to quality education.
These e-book resources can be accessed via SOLO, which will require an Oxford University SSO login. Alternatively, they can be used through a Bodleian reader account for external readers who can access the material by connecting to the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or logging on to the reader PCs within the library.
It’s Christmas time – and we bring you good tidings!
Oxford students and researchers now have access to the online El País Historical Archive, 1976-2023. You have remote access with your Single Sign On (SSO). Access is made available thanks to colleagues at the Taylor Institution Library.
Founded on 4 May 1976, six months after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, El País was created as an independent paper dedicated to the promotion of democratic ideals in post-Franco Spain.
Today, El País is the most circulated daily newspaper in Spain and it is a national newspaper of record, covering local, national, and international news. El País has been offering coverage of global events since 1976. This offering represents a rich historical archive of Spanish-language news from a pro-democracy newspaper. With El País, researchers can dive deeply into a distinctly European-Spanish perspective on historical events, culture, society, politics, sports, and more.
This year, the official theme for Disability History Month is “Disability, Life and Death.” This theme addresses concerns about the legislation being considered in parliament regarding assisted suicide and how it could be used against disabled people. Instead, as explained by the DHM website, it should be the responsibility of our society to properly accommodate disabled people to be able to live their lives to the fullest. They also address the history of ideas that have attacked disabled people’s right to life, including the history of eugenics and the sterilisation or mass murder campaigns that it led to.
From the 20th of November through December, a collection of History Faculty Library material will be displayed on this topic in the Upper Gladstone Link of the Radcliffe Camera. In addition, a selection of relevant e-resources have been listed below. Please click on the book cover pictures to be taken to the SOLO catalogue record for each resource. For further reading on the subject of disability history, please check out our LibGuide by clicking here.
Accessing these e-resource materials will require a Single-Sign-On Login for Oxford University members. External readers will need to log in with their Bodleian accounts while using the Bodleian libraries network (either the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or using the reader PCs within the library.)
Are you a history undergraduate? Do you get confused by how to format references for footnotes or bibliographies, and don’t know where to turn? Drop in to the staff office in the Upper Radcliffe Camera on any Wednesday during Full Term between 1-2pm, to get some quickfire 1-to-1 advice on the best resources to help you!
We can help with:
Where to find History Faculty guidance on citation and referencing
How to use reference management software
Where to check citation style conventions for particular source types
This is not a proofreading service, and we can’t check or create your footnotes or bibliographies, but we can show you where to find answers to your referencing conundrums. And try to explain why referencing doesn’t have to be a source of anxiety!
This month we are celebrating Black History Month! This years theme is “Standing Firm in Power and Pride”, which aims to highlight those people and communities who have resisted racism, lead social change, and stood firm in their pride for the Black community in Britain.
Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE, the Editor in Chief of the Black History Month UK Magazine, wrote in this years issue that “The need to stand firm is especially clear against a backdrop of rising nationalism and systemic inequalities… Yet the story of power in Black history is not only about struggle — it is also about resilience and pride.” To read more of Inko-Tariah’s thoughts, and learn about Black History Month, go to their website, here.
Our physical display takes material from the History Faculty collection and tackles a range of eras, with a focus on resistance, liberation in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Accessing these e-resource materials will require a Single-Sign-On Login for Oxford University members. External readers will need to log in with their Bodleian accounts while using the Bodleian libraries network (either the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or using the reader PCs within the library.)
As part of Black History Month, Oxford University will be holding their annual lecture, this year given by Dr José Lingna Nafafé on the topic of Lourenço da Silva Mendonça early abolitionists. Please check out the website here for more information and to book tickets.
Oxford researchers and students are invited to trial Interwar Culture Module 1: 1919-1929 & Module 2: 1930-1939.
This resource provides access to runs of both prominent and lesser-known periodicals published throughout the interwar period, covering various facets of culture, entertainment, fashion, home and family life, world current affairs, class, social and welfare issues. These historically significant and visually rich magazines provide an important insight into these dynamic yet turbulent decades, as well as allowing examination of a growing media industry that both shaped and reflected society.
Module 1 reflect the social, artistic and cultural dynamism that characterised the ‘Roaring Twenties’ in fashion, music, literature, dance and entertainment as well as post-war intellectual thought and modernism. As the world emerged from the Great War into a new era, periodicals navigated a myriad of issues such as the ongoing undercurrent of feminism, the muddy waters of post-war recovery and the eternal question of youth and morality.
Module 2 tracks these cultural shifts through periodicals of the 1930s, a turbulent decade of contradictions. Against a backdrop of the Great Depression, mass unemployment and the rise of fascism, the 1930s also witnessed a renewed and fierce appetite for entertainment and culture seen in the booming film industry, seminal works of art and literature and ground-breaking innovations in technology, architecture and aviation.
We warmly welcome all new History undergraduates starting in Oxford!
Libraries will play a big part during your time at Oxford, whether providing access to online articles on your reading list or helping you find that elusive book on the open shelves. There are over 100 libraries in Oxford and it can be quite confusing (and daunting) as you learn how to best use them.
Within the Bodleian Libraries, the main university library system, the chief History collections for your study are available online 24/7 or are located in the Radcliffe Camera (which houses the History Faculty Library, whose books can be borrowed). College Libraries also have extensive collections for your course. To know where to find the books, journals and databases you might need, use SOLO, which is Oxford’s discovery tool for libraries.
We also have organised a number of welcome sessions to help you get started! For a more detailed overview of the induction and support we offer students in the first few weeks, see the relevant page on our online teaching portal Canvas (requires your oxford Single Sing-On for access): Canvas – Library Induction and Information Skills training.
Welcome Webinars
Webinars are taking place Wednesday to Friday of 0th Week (8 – 10 October) and have been scheduled into your timetable with further details provided by your college. If you miss your slot, you are very welcome to join any of the timetabled sessions. Further details (and MS Teams link) are available via Canvas – Welcome to Bodleian Libraries webinars.
Undergraduate tours to do not require booking and are run on a drop-in basis. They last 30 minutes.
Note that there are two different tours, one that starts in the Radcliffe Camera (and stays there) and one that starts in the lobby (Proscholium) of the Old Library.
Of course, you are also very welcome to just come along to the library at any time, and staff will be more than happy to help you if you have any questions.
Online Guidance
See the library’s ‘Getting started’ documentation for guidance on how to find resources, the different library services we offer, etc.
See also our general ‘How To’ Guides to help you navigate your way around Bodleian Libraries’ collections and finding aids.
We also have a series of online subject and research guides (called LibGuides) to help students find out about books and online resources for their discipline, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases. There are multiple guides for different areas of History, all accessible from the general History LibGuide: Home – History – Oxford LibGuides at Oxford University.
Help
The libraries are here to help you in your studies. If anything is not clear or you are struggling to find or access your readings, please do get in touch with library staff. You can do so in a variety of ways:
Live Chat – accessible from the front page of our online catalogue SOLO or the Bodleian website
We warmly welcome all new History postgraduates to Oxford libraries!
Libraries will play a big part during your time at Oxford, whether providing access to online articles, helping you find that elusive book on the open shelves or finding source materials. There are over 100 libraries in Oxford and it can be quite confusing (and daunting) as you learn how to best use them.
The History Librarians, Isabel and Rachel, aim to attend as many of the Faculty induction sessions for Graduates as possible in 0th week to introduce ourselves and help you find your feet quickly.
We also provide an induction programme for new graduates, including talks, tours, and research and information skills training. For a more complete overview, see the History Faculty’s Canvas page (Single Sign On required).
Library tours & visits
Bodleian Old Library and Radcliffe Camera –Monday and Wednesday-Friday in 0th week. Sign up through Canvas. PLEASE NOTE that the timings of these tours differ from the drop-in tours organised for new undergraduates. Booking for the postgrad tours is essential!
Vere Harmsworth Library tour (at the Rothermere American Institute) – Wednesday 15 October, 11am – Sign up through Canvas.
Introduction to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room – daily in 1st week (13-17 October) – Sign up through Canvas.
Talk& Training
Welcome talk: Introduction to Bodleian Libraries for History Postgraduates – Monday 6th October, 12-1pm via Teams. Joining link is on Canvas.
Information skills training in Michaelmas Term: for the workshops most relevant to historians, see Canvas. For a an exhaustive overview of all research training on offer, check the Bodleian iSkills website: iSkills workshops | Bodleian Libraries
See also our general ‘How To’ Guides to help you navigate your way around Bodleian Libraries’ collections and finding aids.
We also have a series of online subject and research guides (called LibGuides) to help students find out about books and online resources for their discipline, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases. There are multiple guides for different areas of History, all accessible from the general History LibGuide: Home – History – Oxford LibGuides at Oxford University.
Help
The libraries are here to help you in your research. If anything is not clear or you are struggling to find or access your readings, please do get in touch with library staff. You can do so in a variety of ways:
Live Chat – accessed from the front page of our online catalogue SOLO, or through the Bodleian website
First observed in Haiti on August 23rd 1998, this remembrance day reflects on the lives of the victims of the Atlantic slave trade, as well as the institutional machinations that perpetrated it. In doing so, this project reveals the depths, the causes, and the continued legacy of ramifications that find their roots in this atrocity.
In accordance with this, a display featuring History Faculty Library material relevant to this topic has been arranged in the Upper Gladstone Link of the Radcliffe Camera for perusal. Alternatively, there is an e-book collection to browse through at the bottom of this page, please scroll down and click on the book covers to be taken to the SOLO record of each resource.
Accessing these e-resource materials will require a Single-Sign-On Login for Oxford University members. External readers will need to log in with their Bodleian accounts while using the Bodleian libraries network (either the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or using the reader PCs within the library.)
The National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House under Royal Museums Greenwich will be holding their annual exhibition with a range of talks and activities on the 23rd of August for Slavery Remembrance Day. Click here for more details on the itinerary. In addition, this date coincides with the anniversary of the opening for the International Museum of Slavery in 2007, a part of the collective of National Museums Liverpool. Which, in partnership with the black community of Liverpool, participates in events for Slavery Remembrance Day. There are a range of in-person events and online resources, click the link here for details on this.
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