One of the things that new students can find most confusing on arrival in Oxford is the number of libraries within the University: this is because there are a large number of different types of libraries, which basically can be grouped into three categories.

Your first point of contact will be your college library.  College libraries are accessible only to members of the college, and usually aim to hold teaching texts to support the various courses its students take.  College libraries typically have long hours, many with 24/7 access, and they work closely with the other Oxford libraries to make sure you have access to the texts that you will need for your course.

However your main library during your course is most likely going to be the Sainsbury Library, which is one of the lending Bodleian libraries, but located within the business school itself. It is open from 7.30am to midnight, 7 days a week, and once here, you will have your own access card to this library.  It also holds copies of the course textbooks – both the essential and further readings – as well as providing study space for both groups and individuals.  We have wifi networks in the library, as well as 2 Bloomberg terminals, network points and desktop PCs for you to use.

Additionally, the Sainsbury Library staff are available to support you throughout your course, so please do come and talk to us if there is anything you need.

Beyond the college library and the Sainsbury Library, your University card will entitle you to use any of the other Bodleian Libraries, giving you access to a truly world-class collection of over 6 million books.  The Bodleian Collection includes a large number of reference books that are held in an off-site storage facility and you can order these for reading at the Sainsbury Library. You will also be entitled to borrow from most of the other lending libraries within the Bodleian Libraries group.

In addition to all the books, the Sainsbury and Bodleian Libraries have thousands of electronic resources that you can access from any computer connected to the internet once you have your username and password.  To help you find what you need, the Sainsbury Library has brought the important business and management databases together on our website Key Business Resources: http://ox.libguides.com/business. Although you may not be able to access all the online resources linked there until you start your course, please do explore what the library has to offer and let us know if you would like to know more about any of them.  Our email address is library@sbs.ox.ac.uk.

Although you will need to buy your course texts, most of the additional readings that you will be asked to read can be found online. The Sainsbury Library and the course office provide you with direct links to the full-text of most of the readings and to entries in the online catalogue through embedded URL links we provide via your reading lists: for copyright reasons, most of these will be password protected.

The most important username and password is the Oxford Single Sign-On, which you will receive with your university email address. This is the account you will use to access nearly all the electronic resources, as well as your library account, so that you can see what you have borrowed, renew items online and place holds on books if you need to.

As highlighted in the last newsletter, our Key Business Resources guide (http://ox.libguides.com/business) gives you a quick guide to the databases, what they do, how to access them and some detailed instructions on searching to enable you to get the best out of what Oxford has to offer. Look out for training courses on key databases such as Bloomberg and Capital IQ, and if you would like more detailed help with any other areas of research or have any inquiries regarding the databases, please email Andy (

As always, if you would like to know more about any of these, please email the library on library@sbs.ox.ac.uk.

Each term, your reading lists will be available online within the SBS course sites. They will usually include chapters from books, journal articles and case studies. Within the list are direct links to your readings, and where possible, you’ll be provided with scans or electronic copies of what you need. All of these reading lists will become available to you once you start your course and are able to access the SBS course sites.

However, there are also books that will be listed as essential reading (often listed as “essential purchases”), that you will need to buy, as well as recommended or additional/supplementary readings. The library holds some copies of all of these, but for the core essential (to purchase) texts, you will need your own copy, as there will never be enough copies of these for the type of extended or exclusive use you will need to make of them. Don’t forget to check the second-hand department at Blackwells, as well as out-going MBA students, to see if you can pick up a copy for a bargain price!

The Sainsbury Library staff are available to help you throughout your MBA course, and Chris and Andy in particular have expertise in helping you with your research work. They will be running training sessions both at the beginning of the year and at various points throughout the term, so do look out for those and take the opportunity to find out about the depth of information available to you. If you have specific research needs, or are having problems with any of our databases, you can also email them directly and they can provide you with support either remotely or in person.

In your first term in particular, as well as a general introduction to using the library, there will be training on using Bloomberg, followed next term by a session on Capital IQ. Throughout the term, Chris and Andy are available to help you – whether one to one or in a small group – with getting the most out of the library databases or in approaching your own research effort, so please email them if you need any advice at all. Their emails are chris.flegg@sbs.ox.ac.uk and andrew.kernot@sbs.ox.ac.uk.

The library is staffed from 9am to 7pm on weekdays, and all staff can help you with general questions about using the library, locating databases and your readings, borrowing books and navigating your way through the Oxford library system. If they can’t solve your problem on the spot, they will be able to find you the right person to help, so please don’t hesitate to ask.

The library has its own photocopying and scanning system which is called PCAS. To use it, you will need to create your own username and password, and we recommend you use something familiar and memorable, as library staff cannot reset it for you on the spot if you forget it! We have 4 multi-function machines that do both colour and black and white printing, copying and scanning. The price will depend on what you want to do, with scanning costing just 2p per page, and double-sided, black and white A4 printing costing 9p per double-sided page. A full list of PCAS charges can be found here: http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/PCAS.

Scans can be emailed to you (just enter the address you want them sent to) or saved to a USB stick, while printing can be done from any of the PCs in the library, as well as your own laptop or USB. If you’re using a PC in the library, when you press print, a dialogue box will automatically open, asking you for your username and password. The system is also set up to allow you to print from any computer connected to the internet, whether in your college, your house or your own laptop in the library. Just upload the document to the the Printeron Website here: http://printeron.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Then when you log into the printer in the library, your document will be there waiting for you.

Please bear in mind when printing assignments, projects or similar that the 2 hours before the deadline can get very busy in the photocopying room. Staff are on hand to keep everything running as smoothly as possible and to help anyone who gets stuck, but if at all possible, we do advise you to print your documents in good time.