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

1. 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!
2. Vere Harmsworth Library tour (at the Rothermere American Institute) – Wednesday 15 October, 11am – Sign up through Canvas.
3. Introduction to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room – daily in 1st week (13-17 October) – Sign up through Canvas.

Talk & Training

1. Welcome talk: Introduction to Bodleian Libraries for History Postgraduates – Monday 6^th October, 12-1pm via Teams. Joining link is on Canvas.
2. 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

Online Guidance

Have a look at our ‘Getting Started’ guides for taught postgraduates and research postgraduates.

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
• General enquiries: reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
• History-related enquiries, including loans: library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

We wish you all the very best in your studies and research!