A new book display for April concentrating on wellbeing

Posted on 4 April 2024 by lhoward

With exams and deadlines fast approaching Trinity Term can be a very hectic time for students and staff. It’s important to take time for your own wellbeing and many people enjoy reading literature, poetry or non-academic works as a way to take a break.

We have a wide range of titles in our wellbeing collection in the Radcliffe Science Library and have highlighted a few of them in our book display this month. Pop down to the lower-ground floor and check out our display with titles covering a wide range of topics from harnessing the healing power of classical music to escaping escaping into the fantasy worlds of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to having a chuckle at the idiosyncrasies of British life with the irresistible humour of Bill Bryson (they do say that laughter is the best medicine…).

All of the books in the display are borrowable along with those in the Wellbeing Room. If there are any titles you would like added to the collection please contact rsl-wellbeing@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Do you prefer to bolster your mental health or read a short story?

Book Display

Gaiman, N. et al. (2022) Chivalry. London: Headline.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark PN6700 GAI 2022 (WBR)

Oseman, A. (2019) Heartstopper. Volume 5. London: Hodder Children’s Books.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark PN6737.O84 OSE 2023 (WBR)

Babalola, B. (2021) Love in Colour. London: Headline.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark PR6102 BAB 2020 (WBR)

Haig, M. (2016) Reasons to Stay Alive. Edinburgh: Canongate.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark WM171.5 HAI 2016 (WBR)

Barker, M.-J. (2018) Rewriting the Rules: An Anti Self-Help Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships. 2nd Edition. Abingdon, Oxon; Routledge.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark BF575.I5.B37 BAR 2018 (WBR)

Pratchett, T. (2013) Soul Music. New York: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark PR6066.R34 PRA 2013 (WBR)

Bryson, B. (2016) The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island. London: Black Swan.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark DA632 BRY 2016 (WBR)

Hislop, V. (ed.) (2021) The Story: 100 Great Short Stories Written by Women. London: Head of Zeus, an Apollo book.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark PR111 HIS 2021 (WBR)

Hooper, N. (2021) The Unbreakable Student: 6 Rules for Staying Sane at University. London: Robinson.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark WM101 HOO 2021 (WBR)

Price, D. (2022) Unmasking Autism: The Power of Embracing our Hidden Neurodiversity.
London: Monoray.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark HV1570.23 PRI 2022 (WBR)

Garcia, E. (2022) We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.
First Harvest paperback edition. New York: Harvest, An Imprint of William Morrow.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark BF637 GAR 2022 (WBR)

Burton-Hill, C. (2017) Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day.
London: Headline.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark ML160 BUR 2018 (WBR)

Lower-ground floor reopens

Posted on 25 March 2024 by rachelscanlon

Thank you to everyone for your patience last week. The lower-ground floor of the Radcliffe Science Library has now reopened. Our group study rooms, study carrells and Wellbeing Room are now opan and ready for use.

Photograph of Group Study Room 1 showing a desk surrounded by 6 chairs with a screen on the wall.

Group Study room 1 is open and available for bookings.

Unfortunately there is still a small bit of work ongoing on in the lower-ground floor. The break out area and the staircase accessing it will be out of use for Monday and Tuesday of this week. (25 and 26 March).

We apologise for the inconvenience.

Do you need a book or resource that we don’t currently stock?

Posted on 20 March 2024 by lhoward

We have a wide range of books and resources at the RSL – but if we don’t have what you want, we can try and source or purchase it for you, via our Recommend a Purchase scheme.

Photo (c) John Cairns

If a book or another resource that you need for your studies or research is not currently held in the libraries or online, we will be happy to find it for you, if we can. The Recommend a Purchase option is a valuable additional tool, and we welcome suggestions and recommendations from both students and staff.

You can submit a request via Bodleian Libraries website (SSO required) – but before submitting a request, do check SOLO to make sure the resource is not already available in Oxford. You can also use our inter-library loan service.

Our specialist subject librarians liaise with various divisions and departments to ensure we purchase books and resources that are useful and meet the requirements of both staff and students. When completing the form, please give us as much detail as possible about the book or resource that you are recommending – the more information you give, the more helpful it will be for us.

We can purchase print books and e-books where they are available. This can include out-of-print books, and foreign language material.

Your request will then be passed on to the relevant subject librarian for consideration, and you will be notified of the outcome in due course.

Credit: Arcaion, Pixabay

Have you tried BrowZine?

Posted on 15 March 2024 by lhoward

Have a browse on BrowZine. This helpful tool collates thousands of articles from multiple publishers and hundreds of platforms, making browsing quick and easy, and saving time searching for what you want.

BrowZine enables seamless access to all the electronic journals licensed by the Bodleian Libraries since 2005 – and it has also been integrated with SOLO, so with one click on an article you can download a pdf of it, go to the article on the web, and view the contents page of the journal issue.

Browsing couldn’t be more convenient with BrowZine. It breaks down journals into familiar subjects – and you can just click on each subject to see a list of categories within that subject. Look at all the journals under your specialist area, or select a category within it – and there are subcategories too so you can break it down into further specialisms to focus your study and research interests.

Just to give a little taster, on the BrowZine homepage you can see a list of subjects, such as Earth and Environmental Sciences:

If you click on Earth and Environmental Sciences, you will see categories such as Geosciences:

If you click on Geosciences, you will see subcategories such as Geomorphology:

Additional Features

Set up a personal account on BrowZine so that you can gain access to additional features. Use My Bookshelf to track your favourite journals, and use My Articles to save your favourite article, so you can return again and again to your favourite items quickly and easily.

BrowZine has access to all the electronic journals that the University of Oxford has subscribed to since 2005. For older articles and journals, you can browse SOLO or just click on See All in BrowZine and it will open that journal in SOLO.

The lower-ground floor of the Radcliffe Science Library is CLOSED next week

Posted on 12 March 2024 by lhoward

The lower-ground floor of the Radcliffe Science Library will be CLOSED from 18 March 2024 for up to one week.

This is to ensure necessary building work can be completed, including updating the doors to make the pathways through the library easier.

During this time, there will be no access to the Wellbeing Room, Group Study Room 1, the John Kidd Room or the individual study carrells.

The rest of the library will be open as usual – it is just the lower-ground floor that will be closed.

Credit: Tim Mossholder, Unsplash

There are a range of study spaces available in other Bodleian Libraries. Check out our previous post for some of our favourite spots.

We apologise for any inconvenience and will try to complete the works as quickly as possible.

If you would like further information or have any questions, please contact us: enquiries.rsl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Find out more about Artificial Intelligence (AI) with our Book Display

Posted on 8 March 2024 by lhoward

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has captured the imagination of scholars and scientists for decades. The field of AI is now rapidly evolving and its impact on various fields is becoming increasingly evident.

We have curated a small book display that you can view in the break out area at the RSL. These titles offer insights into various facets of AI, from its history to current advancements, and applications in various disciplines, such as chemistry and computational biology. Other titles investigate the intersection of neuroscience and AI or examine the ethical and societal implications of AI technologies. These books are all available in SOLO.

Book Display

Sejnowski, T. J. (2018) The Deep Learning Revolution.
Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark Q325.5 SEJ 2018.

Levesque, H. J. (2017) Common Sense, the Turing Test, and the Quest for Real AI.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Available as a print book from the RSL at shelfmark Q335 LEV 2017.

Wooldridge, M. J. (2021) The Road to Conscious Machines: The Story of AI
UK? Pelican, an imprint of Penguin Books.

Available soon as a print book from the RSL.

Summerfield, C. (2023) Natural General Intelligence: How understanding the brain can help us build AI
First edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Available soon as a print book from the RSL or as an ebook.

Valls, A. & Gibert, K. (2022) Women in Artificial intelligence (AI)
Basel: MDPI – Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.

Available as an ebook.

Rout, R. K. (ed.) (2023) Artificial Intelligence Technologies for Computational Biology
First edition. [Online]. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Available as an ebook.

Cartwright, H. M. (ed.) (2020) Machine Learning in Chemistry: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence London: Royal Society of Chemistry.

Available as an ebook.

Boden, M. A. (2016) AI: Its nature and future
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Available soon as a print book from the RSL or as an ebook.

Chellappa, R. & Niiler, E. (2022) Can We Trust AI?
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Available soon as a print book from the RSL or as an ebook.

Cirillo, D. et al. (eds.) (2022) Sex and Gender Bias in Technology and Artificial Intelligence: Biomedicine and Healthcare Applications
First edition. London: Academic Press.

Available as an ebook.

Photograph of Artificial Intelligence book display

Find the book display in the break out area in the lower ground floor.

Check out our Resource of the Month – CAB Abstracts

Posted on 4 March 2024 by lhoward

The RSL has a huge collection of physical and electronic materials. We have so much that we wanted to shine a spotlight on some of our items, whether recently added or an existing collection item. The resources are recommended by our knowledgeable subject librarians, who are excited to show off parts of the collection for their subject.

This month’s selector is:

Ollie Bridle

Subject Librarian – Life Sciences and Non-clinical Medicine
Subject Librarian for Biochemistry, Biology, Forestry, Pharmacology, Plant Sciences and Zoology

Ollie has selected CAB Abstracts by CABI, available on SOLO

Brief description

CAB Abstracts is an applied life sciences database, providing over 10.4 million records. If you are researching topics touching on forestry, agriculture, crop science, environmental sciences or nature conservation and biodiversity, CAB Abstracts can be a fruitful place to search for literature. Here’s why:

It has wide, international coverage, with material from over 120 countries in 50 languages
Every record is provided with an English language abstract
Extensive grey literature content is included – including bulletins, annual reports, field notes and technical reports
Each record is professionally indexed with terms from the CAB Thesaurus to make comprehensive topic searching easier

Credit: Manfred Antranias Zimmer, Pixabay

Who is this useful for?

This resource is useful for students and researchers at any level who are researching topics in applied life sciences. It is particularly useful for those researching topics in forestry, agriculture and environmental sciences.

How can I access it?

This database is available through SOLO. It is searched using the OVID database platform. To access it off campus, use the VPN or sign in to the journal platform with your Single Sign On (SSO).

ORA AI Collection

Posted on 29 February 2024 by rachelc

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have existed as areas of research for many years but recently these areas have come to the forefront in research in many different disciplines. There are many departments and groups across the University of Oxford that are using and developing AI tools in their research. Many of these research projects have practical applications in medicine, the environment, business and many other areas of society.

Image shows many bubbles cascading out from a central, larger sphere.

Image created by Nidia Dias as part of the Visualising AI project launched by Google DeepMind. Free to use under the Unsplash License

The Bodleian Libraries have recently launched the ORA (Oxford Research Archive) collection on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning available from the homepage of ORA (Oxford Research Archive), the institutional repository for the University of Oxford.

The ORA AI collection gathers AI-related research on many journal articles, conference papers, working papers, preprints, and more – produced by the members of the University of Oxford and mostly available in full text on ORA. The ORA AI homepage also provides links to Oxford AI-related research activities and to research information included in a range of other platforms.

Image shows the sillouette of a human head with scientific symbols.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC 4.0

To mark the launch of the ORA AI collection, an event showcasing current research on AI and Machine Learning from DPhil students and early career researchers will be held on the 19^th March, 10 -11.30am in the Taylor Institution.

Equipment to borrow at the RSL

Posted on 19 February 2024 by thomascorrick

Forgotten something? If you’ve left your charger or headphones at home, the RSL has you covered!

Photograph of a person holding a laptop and mobile phone

Credit: Maxim Ilyahov, Unsplash

We offer a surprisingly large range of equipment to use in the library: from HDMI cables and plug adapters to book snakes and book rests. You can also grab back supports and footrests too.

Head to the Library Desk to borrow items.

We stock a range of computer equipment and peripherals:

Adapters for screens
Laptop lock
Adjustable laptop stand
Mouse
laptop power station
USB memory stick
You can borrow headphones, laptop and book stands, powerbanks and more from the Library Desk

All sorts of cables and adapters:

Plug adapter (European, American, Japanese)
C-type charging cable
USB Type-C to HDMI adapter – For hooking macs up to study room screens
Micro USB cable
iPhone charging cable
HDMI cable laptop to screen

These items can be borrowed from the Library Desk.

Credit: Srattha Nualsate

As well as:

SONY headphones
Magnifying glass
Foam book rests
Book snakes
Bookstands
Brightsign remote control (for use with study room screens)

Back supports and foot rests can be found in baskets in front ot the Library Desk.

Two photographs of footrests and back supports in baskets

Footrests and back supports can be found in front of the Library Desk

We hope you find this equipment useful!

Let us know if you think we’re missing anything or if you’ve any feedback: enquiries.rsl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Laptop Tables

Posted on 14 February 2024 by rachelc

Have your say!

We know you want more seats in the RSL, and we are working on it, but with some of those seats you’ll need tables. We have two different laptop tables that we are testing and we’d appreciate your feedback.

Both tables are height adjustable but have slightly different styles.

Table 1 has a round shape and a solid base.

Table 2 has a square design.

Give us your feedback by adding a vote for the table you like, use the whiteboard near the tables. You can also leave a comment.

Photograph of a whiteboard with the text that reads, New laptop tables? Help us choose. Add your vote or grab a post-it and leave your comments. Below that are spaces with headings Table 1, Table 2 and Comments.

Cast your vote!

If you have any further comments or suggestions you’d like to make about laptop tables you can reply here or email enquiries.rsl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Science and Medicine

A Bodleian Libraries blog

A new book display for April concentrating on wellbeing

Lower-ground floor reopens

Do you need a book or resource that we don’t currently stock?

Have you tried BrowZine?

The lower-ground floor of the Radcliffe Science Library is CLOSED next week

Find out more about Artificial Intelligence (AI) with our Book Display

Book Display

Check out our Resource of the Month – CAB Abstracts

ORA AI Collection

Equipment to borrow at the RSL

Forgotten something? If you’ve left your charger or headphones at home, the RSL has you covered!

We stock a range of computer equipment and peripherals:

All sorts of cables and adapters:

As well as:

Laptop Tables

Have your say!