Category Archives: Library Resources

Celebrating IWD in true library fashion

Celebrating in true library fashion!

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Saïd Business School is celebrating two important occasions: International Women’s Day and hosting the Oxford Africa Business Forum 2024. The Sainsbury Library has decided to join in the celebrations with two different but complementary displays.

We have a window display at our library entrance, train station side, showcasing the library’s ebook collection of titles relating to doing business, entrepreneurship, and women’s empowerment in Africa. Our second display showcases books primarily from our physical collection, with a focus on women in business and women’s economic empowerment globally. Remember to look at both sides of the display. One side shows our books focused on the African continent and the other has books focused on women, business, and inclusion. To help you navigate each display, the titles have been split up into different categories.

The library would like to highlight that the books can be borrowed by students and staff within Saïd Business School and across the wider university community. Please see our library information page for our opening hours. Most of the ebooks will require a University of Oxford Single-Sign-On but, as highlighted below, some are open access and available to anyone!

Window Display
For our Window Display, the focus is on celebrating Oxford Africa Business Forum 2024 which is marking its 15th anniversary this year! The forum’s theme this year is Business as a Force for Nation Building and ‘is centred on the integral role businesses play in national development.’1 This is a perfect chance for the library to share and showcase its resources relating to Africa and Business. The display contains descriptions of the books and a QR code to access the ebook. Please note that many of the titles require an Oxford SSO but some on the list are open access.

Business and Development books
Our first category of books links to the Oxford Africa Business Forum’s theme of business and development within the continent.

Entrepreneurship and Leadership books
Our second category of books links to the school’s wider Oxford Saïd Africa Initiative and the Oxford Africa Business Alliance which aim to invest in Africa, support the next generation of African leaders, and to ‘stimulate a vigorous dialogue about business, investment and entrepreneurship in Africa’2.

Women’s Empowerment:
Our third category of books focus on women’s economic empowerment and includes a book on leadership co-authored by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who is a global financial and economics expert and the first woman and first African to be director general of the World Trade Organisation. These titles are also part of our International Women’s Day display to highlight the link between the two themes.

Book Display
Our physical book display primarily showcases books from our library’s general business collection which can be found in our Annexe room. The display has books on a wide range of topics from philosophers reimagining human development and public policy to women sharing their workplace experiences and career tips for women. There is something here for every reader!

Whilst not creating the display with IWD’s theme of ‘Inspiring Inclusivity’ in mind, the books on display highlight the theme throughout. The display has books from diverse authors such as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Saadia Zahid, and Junheng Li. Titles have also been picked that showcase the international side of our collection.

Historical Books – all physical:

Books on leadership, careers, and working women’s lives-all physical books:

Books on philosophical and economical empowerment-ebooks and physical:

These titles are also included in our Oxford Africa Business Forum window display but link to International Women’s Day.

References
1. Africa Business Forum (n.d) Available at: https://www.oxfordafricaforum.com/ (Accessed: 7 March 2024)
2. Oxford Africa Business Alliance (n.d). Available at: https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/school/our-community/oxford-africa-business-alliance (Accessed 7 March 2024)

 

Book display in the Sainsbury Library.

Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award 2023

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  • What is a ‘right kind of wrong’?
  • Have you wondered how big projects get done or why they end up in disasters?
  • Do you know about the six materials that have shaped human history and will shape our future?
  • Are you aware of the modern-day slavery involved in the production of cobalt, a material that is used to power our everyday lives?
  • Have you considered what the new era of AI means for the world?
  • What drives the innovation, triumphs, and failures of one of the most influential people in the world?

Sainsbury Library invites you to explore these questions with our Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year display. You can access the Financial Times through the Bodleian Libraries, our Current News LibGuide has instructions for registering.

The Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award started in 2005 and aims to find enjoyable books that are pertinent to modern issues in business. The shortlist, for 2023, according to the judges, offers ‘exciting, engaging, and important titles that together provide a highly readable guide to the future of business’1 and ‘solutions to the pressing challenges facing executives and policymakers at a time of profound disruption and uncertainty.’2

The books shortlisted are about topics that go beyond what most people would define as a “business” book and are likely to be of interest to a wide range of readers.

Titles like Right Kind of Wrong (2023 winner) and How Big Things Get Done may be useful for managers but also for people who want to understand why things fail, and how to effectively learn and improve from mistakes. Cobalt Red, Material World, and AI: The Coming Wave, all explore the hidden world of technology, materials, and minerals. The authors shine a light on the history, exploitation, and risks to society and the environment associated with their subject matters. Finally, ‘Elon Musk’ – whether you love the man or hate him – offers readers an insight into one of the most influential and powerful figures in the world today.

A special mention and congratulations to Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg who is an Emeritus Professor at Saïd Business School and who co-authored the shortlisted book How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration.

We hope you find something that will pique your interest and that you come along and borrow one, or all of them!

Book of the Year

Right Kind of Wrong: Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive
By Amy Edmondson- a world-renowned organisational psychologist and Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School.

Shortlist

Material World: A substantial Story of our Past and Future
By Ed Conway- a writer and broadcaster, currently the Economics and Data editor for Sky News and regular columnist for The Times and Sunday Times.

How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration
By Bent Flyvbjerg- Saïd Business School Emeritus Professor and the world expert on megaprojects; and Dan Gardner, New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and consultant.

Elon Musk
By Walter Isaacson- a history professor at Tulane University, journalist, former CEO of CNN, and bestselling author of biographies including about Steve Jobs and Kissinger.

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers our Lives
By Siddharth Kara- a British Academy Global Professor and Rights Lab Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at the University of Nottingham.

The Coming Wave: AI, Power and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest Dilemma
By Mustafa Suleyman (with Michael Bhaskar)- a serial tech entrepreneur. AI researcher and co-founder of DeepMind, part of Google, and co-founder of Inflection AI; and Michael Bhaskar – New York Times bestselling writer, and publisher on AI, technology, publishing, and the future of media.

If you are interested in seeing the books that did not reach the shortlist, then you should check out the Financial Times Book of the Year Longlist and you can also see historical entries on their Best Business Books page.

Further Reading: Book Reviews

If you want to find out more about each title above, here are snippets from reviews and you can read the full review by clicking on the book title.

Right Kind of Wrong by Amy Edmondson
‘Do good teams make fewer mistakes? It seems a reasonable hypothesis. But in the early 1990s, when a young researcher looked at evidence from medical teams at two Massachusetts hospitals, the numbers told her a completely different story: the teams who displayed the best teamwork were the ones making the most mistakes. What on earth was going on?’3

Material World- the six commodities that shape our lives
‘Ed Conway’s lucid book explores the mines and quarries beneath the ‘ethereal’ economy of technology and services.’ 4

How Big Things Get Done
‘The book has an upbeat title, perhaps because publishing lore suggests that including “failure” is a sure way to crater sales, but, rest assured, it is full of delicious anecdotes about project management disasters.’5

Elon Musk
‘An exploration of the tech billionaire’s epic feats, which is long on reporting detail but shorter on the meaning of Musk.’6

Cobalt Red
‘Takes a deep dive into the horrors of mining the valuable mineral — and the many who benefit from others’ suffering.’7

AI: The Coming Wave 
‘Bristles with breathtaking excitement about the extraordinary possibilities that the revolutions in AI and synthetic biology could bring about (…) In the 21st century, the dilemma will be how to contain technology’s power.’8

We hope you enjoy reading some of these books. If you have any ideas for other business books do contact us! You can also use the Bodleian request form to suggest a new book, e-book, database or resource.

References
1. 2. Hill, Andrew. “FT Business Book of the Year 2023 — the shortlist” Financial Times, September 21, 2023.
3. Harford, Tim. “The art of making good mistakes,” Financial Times, September 15, 2023.
4. Gapper, John. “Material world-the six commodities that shape our lives,” Financial Times, June 15, 2023.
5. Hill, Andrew, et al. “FT business books: What to read this month,” Financial Times, February 9, 2023.
6. Foroohar, Rana. “Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson — clashes of the titan,” Financial Times, September 13, 2023.
7. Aikins, Matthieu. “How Is Your Phone Powered? Problematically.,” New York Times, January 23, 2023.
8. Thornhill, John. “AI and the next great tech shift,” Financial Times, September 14, 2023.

Photograph of the AI book display in the Sainsbury Library.

Welcome to the World of AI

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Step into the Sainsbury Library and explore the fascinating, fun, but sometimes frightening, world of Artificial Intelligence with our book display in the lower reading room. AI is ubiquitous in many people’s daily lives and is impacting and raising questions in all areas of businesses. With AI ‘creating’ art, films, music and novels; aiding doctors, researchers and patients in the life-saving work of medicine; and assisting both defensive and offensive forces in wars. For some, the rapid growth and innovation of AI represents a golden opportunity for business, humans, and the future of our world. However, for others, AI spells impending doom, with visions of mass unemployment and even the end of the world. For both, AI is a tool that makes the imagined events of Sci-fi-the good, the bad, and the fun-a reality.

The Sainsbury Library’s display, ‘Welcome to the World of AI’, has books ranging from the threats and opportunities of AI in business and economics, the history of AI, the ethics of AI, and even chess and AI. We hope you will find something of interest to you, whether you are a doomsayer, optimist, or have no idea what AI is all about!

Please note all books are available on-line, unless otherwise specified. Please click on the links provided or even better come and browse the colourful display in-person and scan our QR codes!

General and Philosophy

Business

Further resources

For more resources see our Business of AI LibGuide.

The O’Reilly learning platform and Gartner research library both provide free access to expert-created and curated information covering all the areas that will shape our future – including artificial intelligence.

Online Learning with O’Reilly

Gartner Campus Access

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Library system upgrade: 16–23 August

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This summer, the University of Oxford’s libraries are upgrading to a new library system. From Wednesday 16 August – Wednesday 23 August (inclusive), we will be running a reduced service while this essential work takes place.

We apologise for any inconvenience the upgrade work may cause. Our new library system will go live on 24 August, when normal services will restart.

Access to resources

During the period 16 – 23 August:

  • The self-issue machine in the Sainsbury Library will be out of action. If you wish to borrow or return a book, please speak to a member of library staff or complete a book borrowing slip and place it in the book return box. It is essential that you bring your University Card with you, as books cannot be issued without your barcode number.
  • You can access the library catalogue SOLO, but you will not be able to log into your SOLO account (My SOLO).
  • Information on SOLO will be frozen until the update work is complete, including information about item availability. If you are travelling to a library for a particular item, contact library staff or email services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to check that it is available for you to use.
  • Your access to e-resources will not be affected, both on campus and via remote access.

Unavailable services

From 16 – 23 August, the following services will not be available:

  • Scan & Deliver
  • Ordering items from offsite storage through SOLO
  • Inter-library requests (unavailable from 5pm on Friday 11 August – Wednesday 23 August inclusive)

Please place any Scan & Deliver requests, inter-library requests or requests for items from offsite storage by 5pm on Friday 11 August to guarantee processing.

Changes to SOLO data from 16 August

As part of the library system upgrade, some SOLO data will not be carried over to the new system. This includes SOLO favourites, saved searches and loan history. If you’d like to keep your SOLO favourites, you must export them by Wednesday 16 August. To find out how to save your SOLO data, visit our SOLO guide or email reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

New rules for borrowing from 24 August

On 24 August, the Bodleian Libraries will be introducing new, simplified rules for borrowing across all our libraries. Find out more about the upcoming changes.

More information

For more details and updates on library services during the essential upgrade work, visit the Bodleian Libraries website.

Book display for Mental Health Awareness week.

Resources: Mental Health Awareness Week

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This week is Mental Health Awareness Week (15 – 23rd May). The theme this year is anxiety with the aim of starting a national conversation and encouraging people to share their experiences. At the Sainsbury Library, you can take a look at our new book display in the lower reading room and the posters near the library entrance. They are packed with reading and listening ideas for reducing stress and anxiety. You can also find the links to all the resources below.

Ebooks

Audiobooks

For more resources and support see our recent post on Self-help e-books.

Self-help e-books

Woman working on a digital tablet in the new normal. Image by rawpixel.com

Self-help e-books

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Trinity Term is a particularly stressful time of year for our students but support is available. The University Health and Welfare team are on hand to provide a variety of resources and assistance. In addition to University services, Nightline provides a completely independent listening, support, and information service run for and by students.

From a library perspective, we feel we have a pastoral duty of care to our readers. We seek to provide a safe, welcoming space where students can achieve what they set out to achieve. The Bodleian as a whole has been carefully collecting and curating a selection of self-help books for students, staff, and any other interested users. The majority of these books are e-books, which we feel adds an element of discretion for those who wish for it. These e-books are available to view at any time of day, from any location; all you need is an internet connection and your Single Sign-On.

The full list of titles is available as a Reading List on ORLO. If you feel there are any titles or topics we may have missed, please do get in touch with our disability librarian.

Garner website being accessed on an iPad. Image by rawpixel.com.

Gartner Campus Access

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The University now provides full access to the Gartner research library (log in with your Oxford SSO).

Gartner is the global leader in providing accurate and current research for the IT industry and its research library helps translate complex IT issues into comprehensive advice and meaningful analysis. The Gartner research library provides access to current research, analytics and insights that are accurate, impartial, and consistent. The benefits of Gartner include the combined expertise of 2,300 research analysts and consultants who advise executives in 130 countries every day. They publish tens of thousands of pages of original research annually and answer 340,000 client questions every year.

See the LibGuide for more information.

FT book display in the library.

FT Business Book of the Year Display 2022

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All the books on the @FT Business Book of the Year shortlist are now available in the library. You can take a look at the display in the lower reading room. In this post we highlight each book and link to the record or ebook in SOLO.

Dead in the Water: Murder and Fraud in the World’s Most Secretive Industry by @MattCampbell and @KitChellel
Written in a novelistic style, this book looks at the crimes surrounding an attack on a tanker, to uncover the realities of the global shipping industry. It is available to read online via SOLO.

Influence Empire: The Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition by @luluyilun 
Influence Empire charts the rise of Tencent, the developer of WeChat and the wider Chinese tech economy.

The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era by @glgerstle
This book looks at the rise of neoliberalism since the 1970s, through to Trumpism and the reinvigorated American left. It is available to read online via SOLO.

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption by @scmallaby
The Power Law looks at Silicon Valley VC firms and how they have influenced both innovation and global economics.

Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century by @HelenHet20 
This book looks at the overlapping geopolitical, economic, and political crises faced by Western democratic societies in the current decade. It is available to read online via SOLO.

Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by @crmiller1
Chip War is the winner of Business Book of the Year, it looks at the decades-long battle to control microchip technology and the economic and geopolitical forces that shaped this industry.

We hope you enjoy reading some of these books. If you have any ideas for other business books do contact us! You can also use the Bodleian request form to suggest a new book, e-book, database or resource.

Recommend a book

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If a book or other resource you need is not held by the Sainsbury Library or the Bodleian Libraries, we are happy to try to source or purchase this for you. We accept recommendations from students and staff. Before submitting a request, check SOLO to make sure the resource is not already available in Oxford.

The Bodleian Libraries also welcome suggestions for books and other resources to be purchased. When completing the form, please provide as much detail as possible about the resource you are recommending. Your request will be passed on to the relevant subject librarian for consideration, and you will be notified of the outcome.

Suggest a Database or Data Set

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Do let us know if there’s a resource that we don’t currently offer that you’d like to use in your studies or research. The Sainsbury Library team will then look into providing the database, or we might be able to suggest an alternative from our current offering of databases that has the same data.

Even if we cannot immediately offer the resource, all feedback and requests are helpful and can assist us in identifying new databases in the long term. Some recent database acquisitions are due to requests from staff and students, so get in touch with your suggestions!