August News and September Reminders

We trust everyone is having a relaxing summer? Before we get on to the news from last month, please note:

St Giles’ Fair

The Library is CLOSED for St Giles’ Fair as usual, from Saturday 3rd (tomorrow as I post this) to Tuesday 6th. We will re-open at 0900 on Wednesday.

Having been in the building on other fair-days I can assure anyone who feels aggrieved about us being closed that you really don’t want to be trying to concentrate when all you can hear is the bloodcurdling screams of people on the rides directly behind Blackfriars’ at the back of the building, not to mention several conflicting bass lines from the music. Best to stay away, read at the Bodleian, where it’s quieter, maybe venture out for some candy floss?

Muller Library Books

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/14676916.VIDEO__Crews_tackle_fire_at_Oxford_University_building_in_Walton_Street/

The Leopold Muller Library remains closed following the fire at the Clarendon Institute on Walton Street on August 11th. We are as yet not sure when the Estates Department will allow general access to the building again, but in the meantime readers who wish to consult books held at the Muller Library are advised to contact the staff, who will bring their books to the Oriental Institute. Readers ordering books from the BSF will have their books delivered to us, and staff will also bring round lending books which we can then check out in the usual way. If the situation continues for a long time we may have a member of the Muller Library staff working on-site at the Oriental Institute, but as yet we do not know whether this will be necessary.

Building Works

We are happy to report that the builders have now finished in the library and the skylights have been successfully replaced. The scaffolding towers have gone and we are able to use the back office again, which had been completely emptied to allow for coverings on the ceiling. As I write this, the scaffolders are removing the rest of their structures from above the library, so things should quieten down nicely next week!

Thank you to everyone for their forbearance in the face of much drilling/banging and off-key singing (or so I am told by other colleagues).

We now have nice, new, brighter (and opening – but only in the back office) skylights which will hopefully hold in the heat a bit better in the winter, and are much less yellow and scruffy than the old ones were!

 

Building Works in the Library

Work to replace the skylights in the Oriental Institute Library is set to begin NEXT WEEK, July 11th, and run through until approximately August 9th. The builders will be accessing the skylights in the LC section, round by the journals and in the staff office and there is likely to be some noise and dust disruption during this time.

We have been told that all the books *should* be accessible to staff during the works but would ask readers that they ask a member of staff to fetch items which are close to the building work and we may have to cordon off certain sections entirely depending on the nature of the works going on.

We are working on a day-to-day basis on this and the situation may change, but we are determined that the library will remain open for the duration of the works.

Please bear with us during this disruptive time. Any further updates or details will be posted on this blog or on the Facebook page.

Summer News and Announcements

It’s now the Summer Vacation, and contrary to the perceived assumptions of some of our readers, we don’t all just spend the summer lying down reading books (oh, if only…)! There is going to be rather a lot going on over the next few weeks:

Bookmoves

The move of some items from downstairs and the rearrangement of the rest of the collection was mentioned in the previous (short) blog post. We have now almost completed the bookmove, and are in the process of finishing off downstairs and finalising the shelf-labels and other details so that the books are locatable by readers.

Meanwhile we are also now home to a number of periodical titles from the Taylorian which are going to be temporarily kept in our rolling stack and in the area where the Korean Studies Library books were (round the corner from the Reader PC). We will do our best to accommodate readers from the Taylorian who need to access these journals, which will eventually be barcoded and sent to the BSF.

The last of the Japanese books in the Library – the Reference collection on the ground floor – have now been sent on to the Bodleian Japanese Library, so we no longer hold any Japanese material.

Building Works

Anyone who has been in over the last few days will not have been able to ignore the noises from the builders, who are currently scaffolding the building ahead of the replacement of various parts of the roof, including the Library skylights.

We do not have an exact timetable as yet for when the parts of the library directly under the skylights are going to be affected and are currently awaiting confirmation from the builders, but it is looking like the end of July – beginning of August. There will be periods when the books directly under the skylights will not be accessible to readers, but we have been assured that Staff will still be able to access them, and we will be able to bring readers books from the closed-off areas.

A larger issue for staff is that there may be a requirement to build a scaffolding tower *inside* the Library Office, which may result in staff being displaced if it requires us to dismantle the desks. We will endeavour to ensure that there is always a member of staff on the Front Desk (unaffected by the works) and there will be cover to ensure that we can stay open for our usual hours during the disruption.

Note, however, that if for some reason we do need to close, we will try to give everyone as much notice as possible to avoid inconveniencing people too badly.

New Photocopiers!

We will be receiving new photocopiers at some point over the later part of the summer in accordance with a plan to improve aspects of the PCAS system. Documentation will be distributed when the details have been finalised and we hope that there will not be too long a period when photocopying is not available to readers.

Opening Times

Subject to the above caveat, the Library will be open as usual throughout the summer from 9am – 7pm on weekdays and 11am – 5pm on Saturdays. The normal exceptions to this are the August Bank Holiday weekend, when we are closed on the Saturday 27th and Monday 29th August inclusive, and St Giles’ Fair, on the 5th and 6th September.

Outside the Oriental Institute, may we remind readers that the Middle East Centre library will be closed from 4.30pm, Friday 8th July until Friday 30th September.

Any alterations to the opening times or other matters will be posted on the Facebook Page, with longer explanations appearing as blog posts as and when we need them.

April News

A quiet month…

Whilst your humble librarians would love to have list of the exciting things which happened during April at the Oriental Institute Library, in reality there is not much to report. Apart from the usual flurry of activity at the end of the month, when Term started and many books were returned after the Vacation, April was a quiet time in the library in which often the loudest sound was the ruffling of pages – and the occasional loud “thump!” wherever Kate was moving books.*

(*It’s not something that can be helped; when moving a shelf’s worth of books on to a different shelf one runs the risk of a couple toppling over, and as we have metal shelving they do make a rather resonating “BONG” noise. For the record, only once did any actually fall off the shelf, and those were caught on the way down!)

The bookmove which was ongoing for much of the month is now finished, and the reclassification has reached almost the end of the DS section; readers looking for books which have an old classification (DS-Number-letters) are advised to check their reference unless the number is 452 or higher as almost all the others will now be in the LC classification.

Staff update

Natalija has now taken over a vacant position on Fridays, which has meant a small shuffle of the staffing in the library, but will improve coverage overall should there be an emergency. We hope readers will not be too confused by seeing different people on the desk at odd times!

Remaining quiet…

As we are now into the final Term we appreciate that readers will be preparing for exams and would just remind everyone that we are here as a quiet space for revision and/or panic. Do let staff know if there is anything we can do.

Finally,

Hopefully, by the end of May, we will be able to give updates on the buildings work which is to be scheduled for the summer, including the replacement of the Library skylights. Stay tuned!

 

A Few Library Reminders

After a relatively low turnout for this year’s Library Open Day, we thought that it might be timely to publish a post with a few pearls of wisdom for new readers. Note that more information about library rules and collections is to be found on the OIL website, which also has links to materials which have been made available on WebLearn: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/oil

  • The Library Door: the door operates using the SALTO system, which is used around several libraries in Oxford and requires you to hold up your Bod card to the little box on the doorframe. This does not always work if your card is in your wallet alongside other cards, particularly bus-cards or other cards with a chip. Removing your Bod card from your wallet and holding it close to the little box usually works, but please be patient and wait for the green light!
  • Downstairs: the Library has a downstairs! This comes as a surprise to some readers (one had been here several years before discovering the Lower Ground floor), and will prove especially useful to those people studying Chinese or Japanese, South Asian subjects, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Syriac and related Eastern Christianity subjects or Korean. While some materials from these collections are held up on the ground floor in the reference section at the far end of the library, more extensive collections are to be found downstairs. Please note however, that some Hebrew and Jewish studies books were recently moved to the Muller Library at the Clarendon Institute on Walton Street, so there may be gaps. The stairs are located round the corner from the Front Office and just along from the Back Office.
  • Reference vs. Apply Staff: If a book on SOLO says “Reference” that means it is confined to the Library and cannot be borrowed. These books are for the most part shelved in the general sequence if they belong to the collections on the Ground Floor, or will be found at the back of the Ground Floor in the Reference section if their collections are usually on the Lower Ground. Do ask staff if you aren’t sure. “Apply Staff” books are on the shelves in the Front Office and are for use in the library. These are books nominated by the Faculty members and appear on reading lists, so are restricted to avoid them disappearing for long periods when everyone needs them for essays.
  • Shelfmarks: There are a number of different shelfmarks in use in the Library, but the main source of confusion is among those beginning with letters such as DS, PJ and PK. A rule of thumb is that the short shelfmarks without a date will be for books with BLACK labels, in the middle and at the side nearest to the windows, and the long shelfmarks with a date will be WHITE labels, which start behind the Front Office and work their way around the outside of the library. Shelves are labelled, but do ask the staff on duty if you are really stuck. Kate, who works at the desk on several afternoons in the week, is gradually reclassifying the old (black-labelled) sequence, so books do sometimes move without warning!
  • And finally: ASK if you can’t find something! There will always be someone on the desk who can help.

May Headlines

 

May has been a month during which the library has been very well-occupied by readers preparing for exams. We would like to wish everyone the best of luck! We hope that we are providing somewhere calm and welcoming for people who are a bit stressed and worried; as ever, do let us know if there is anything we can do to help – even if it is just making sure the photocopier has enough paper.

We had some drama last week when one of the stair treads came loose on the stairs leading down to the basement, leading to Dawn having to take the decision to close the stairs. The lift (which is in the corner of the library past the photocopiers) never saw so much action! Fortunately it also behaved itself, which is always a bit of a worry with such an antique piece of equipment… The stairs were repaired quickly and we are happy to report that there were no injuries as a result of the problem.

Readers will have noticed that another survey, different to the one which was sent out for students, has been being publicised via notices around the library. We hope that everyone who wished to give feedback successfully did so in the time available. When we have official news about the proposed changes to the library service we will, of course, pass it on. We are bound, however, to only doing this when approved by senior staff, so do bear with us if we’re not saying much!

Announcements for June

Vacation loans will begin next week (8th June) and will run through until 13th October (Tuesday of First Week). Books borrowed before that time can be renewed for the longer loan period as long as you have not renewed more than twice before. If you have any problems please contact library staff.

We have been asked to pass on a reminder to finalists to use up your PCAS credit! Accounts do stay active for about two years, but it is probably worth trying to leave them as empty as possible if you are leaving us for pastures new.

We would also like to gently remind finalists to please return your books to the library before you go; and to please make sure that you return the correct books to the right places!

 

Your Chance to Have Your Say

Don’t forget to fill in the survey!

All students of the Faculty of Oriental Studies will have been sent a link to an online survey about the proposed changes to the Library – moving our services and books into the Sackler Library on St John St in Summer 2016.

Library staff can answer broad questions, but much of the detail is still to be worked out as the proposal at this stage is just that – a proposal. Nothing is set in stone, regardless of some of the rumours which are going around.

You have until next Tuesday to respond; the survey is very short so please do not miss this opportunity to have your opinions heard, whether you think the change is a good idea or whether you think the Library at the Oriental Institute should remain in the Oriental Institute.

If you want to have a say about this, now is the chance!

2014 Round-up

Happy New Year!

 

2014 was a busy year for the Library, with much going on as ever.

We have continued to develop and improve our online presence, with the introduction of the OIL page on the University’s WebLearn platform, which is now coming up for its first birthday and contains scans of many resources added at the request of the academic staff. We also have the LibraryThing widget on the blog, which enables readers to keep track of our new additions.

March saw the completion of the project to upgrade the Library’s windows, which led to some disruption for a time at the far end of the library and on a related note all the computers were also upgraded to the Windows7 operating system (ha ha).

Later in the spring we began displaying the beautiful merchandise from the Bodleian’s Love and Devotion exhibition – items are still available and are on display at the entrance to the Library. The posters have proved especially popular.

Over the summer we undertook a few alterations. The Apply Staff books were reclassified into the Library of Congress classification to bring them into line with the rest of the library (more of which later), which has happily proven not to be as confusing for anyone as we feared it might, despite items shifting around a bit.

OIL staff were also involved in the reclassification of the books on Open Shelf at the RSL in the Special Collections Reading Room, prior to that collection’s move into the Charles Wendell David Reading Room in the Weston Library, which opened its doors to readers on the 29th September.

Michaelmas Term saw the excitement of the Name the Stapler competition – a winner for which has been nominated but has yet to be presented with their prize, hence the lack of official announcement – and the usual busy period as our new intake found their feet and our more established readership got back into the swing of things.

As soon as Term finished, Kate started moving the books in the Library of Congress sequence into the space vacated by the DS section which she had been reclassifying. The LC section is now all the way round to the first bay by the windows in the nearest corner to the Sackler, and runs under the windows at the side. Labels are in place, but do ask if things have moved a long way from where they were. The total number of books reclassified in 2014 was 2231 items, representing 1635 shelfmarks, and there is still a long way to go!

The move finished just as we were closing for the Christmas break, which was convenient as it means that the reclassification can begin again in earnest now that things are back to normal.

We hope everyone had a relaxing holiday, and wish everyone all the best for 2015!

February Headlines

February has been a fairly quiet month, news-wise at OIL, although as it is currently Term time we have been busy with our regular readers and welcoming new ones from various departments – it is surprising how much our collection crosses disciplines!

There was a certain amount of excitement* when Kate finished the last of the BP section in her ongoing reclassification project, which is a big milestone as that was the largest section in the old classification. There are still some of the old BPs left as not all of them were easily reclassified, and these will shortly be moving to a new home close to their current location when we do the next round of book moves to use some of the space under the windows at the Ashmolean end of the library. (*Not really. There was a certain amount of “Wow, that took a long time…”, but then she did start in 2010).

This next move will happen during the Easter Vacation, in order to annoy disturb as few people as possible. We will also be moving the folios (large books) in the LC section into a new location at the far end of the back wall of that section, and we’ll make sure that the signs are kept up to date so people can find things again!

There are a couple of announcements for March. Firstly: the Vacation Loan period for the Easter Vacation will begin from next week, and books will be due back on the 29th April (Tuesday of 1st Week), and secondly, readers might be interested in this eBook workshop which is running at IT services to coincide with World Book day on 6th March: http://courses.it.ox.ac.uk/detail/TIMIW

In wider Bodleian Libraries news, the Oriental Institute Library would like to congratulate Richard Ovenden on his appointment to the post of Bodley’s Librarian. Richard was here at OIL last year for the opening of the Window on Korea (below left), and we wish him all the best for his new role.

IMG_1090

 

July headlines and announcements for August

We trust everyone is having a lovely summer? The recent spell of very hot weather made for some slightly stuffy days in the office, which does not have windows that open, but after last summer with the constant sound  of rain pattering on the skylights it was welcome!

As usual, July has been fairly quiet. However, there was some excitement with the launch of the Oriental Institute Library’s new website, which we hope will prove to be useful to our readers. The site can be found at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/oil.

OIL website screenshot

Elsewhere, Kate has been taking advantage of the quiet at the issue desk to continue the ongoing reclassification project, and this year is counting how many she books she reclassifies during the Vacation. Updates as to how she gets on will follow in September, when there will also be a minor book-move to fill up the spaces.

That’s all the news for July, I’m afraid. There are, however, a couple of early reminders of closures later on:

Firstly, the entire Bodleian Libraries, including OIL, will be closed over the August Bank Holiday Weekend – Saturday 24th August to Monday 26th August inclusive.

Secondly, OIL will be closed as usual during St Giles’ Fair, which this year will be the 2nd and 3rd of September. We will post notices and update the Facebook page nearer the time.