Vacation Loans are due back today (Tuesday 21 January)

A person stood amongst the SSL book shelves holding a pile of books in front of them. The pile is so high it obscures their face.

Our vacation borrowing period comes to an end today (Tuesday 21 January), and loan periods will operate on term-time rules.

Please bring back to the library any items you originally borrowed on or before 1 October 2024 for return or to re-borrow, as these items have now reached their maximum renewal period of 112 days (16 weeks)

To see how long you can borrow books for, refer to the Bodleian Libraries ‘Borrow and Reserve Items’ webpage

Log into your account on SOLO to view items you have borrowed and see when they are due back.

The borrowing period for individual items will also be displayed when you are signed in to SOLO.

Example:

An example of what a loanable item that is on place in the shelves looks like on SOLO (the Oxford University Libraries catalogue)

Take control of your references: find out more about reference management

Infographic of a person reading a book, with question marks next to them. Above are the words 'Want to find out more about Reference Management.'

Formatting your text citations, footnotes and bibliography correctly for your essay or thesis can be a chore. Using reference management software makes it easier and saves you time.

There are a number of options to choose from:

  • EndNote
  • Mendeley
  • RefWorks
  • Zotero

To find out more about the different software available, how they work, and which will best suit your needs:

A infographic of a person holding a question mark. Next to them, in a circle, are the words 'RefWorks', 'Mendeley', 'Zotero' and 'Endnote.' Above are the words 'Consult our Reference Management Subject Guide.'

The Bodleian Libraries Reference Management Subject Guide, includes comprehensive information on different reference management software, including the pros and cons of using each one.

An infographic of a person stook next to a large screen. On the screen are the words 'Bodleian iSkills - Attend a free Reference Management Training Session.'

Attend one of the upcoming Bodleian iSkills Reference Management training sessions. Find out more and book your place via the links below.

Referencing: Choosing and using software for referencing

(In Person Course)

Wednesday 22 January, 1.30pm – 4.30pm

Referencing: EndNote

(In Person Course)

Monday 3 February, 9.30am – 12.30pm

Referencing: EndNote

(Online Course)

Wed 20 February, 2.30pm – 4.30pm

Referencing: RefWorks

(Online)

Tuesday 11 February, 2.30pm – 4.30pm

Referencing: Zotero

(In Person Course)

Wednesday 19 February, 1.30am – 4.30pm

Referencing: Zotero

(Online)

Thursday 6 March, 2.30pm – 4pm

Open laptop on a desk with the words 'Cite Them Right' on the screen. Next to it is a pen, pad and a cup of coffee.

Explore Cite Them Right, an online platform designed to advise students on how to reference correctly across eight referencing styles. Based on a best-selling book in its 12th edition, by Richard Pears and Graham Shields, this programme is trusted by institutions globally, and accessed by thousands of students daily.

Cite Them Right gives examples and generates citations from a choice of 7 referencing systems for print and electronic formats. The citations can be copied into your work or emailed. The referencing systems are Harvard (author-date), APA, MLA, MHRA, OSCOLA, Vancouver and Chicago. Citations can be created for a very diverse range of sources, including books, journals, digital resources and websites, audio-visual material, unpublished material (theses, manuscripts, etc.), financial & scientific reports, genealogical sources (wills, censuses, etc.), legal material, government and other official publications, and other forms of communication sources (email, social media, graffiti, etc.).

Where can you access the resource?

Cite Them Right can be accessed via SOLO.

An infographic of two people at a desk, one with a laptop and one taking notes. A calendar is next to them. Above are the words 'Book an appointment with your Subject Consultant.'

You can also get advice on reference management from your Subject Consultant. Find out their contact information here.

Social Science Library Drop-in Tours and Bodleian Libraries Welcome/Refresher Webinars (Hilary Term 0th Week)

Group of students walking through the SSL bookshelves on a tour of the library.

Drop-in tours

This week there will be two 30-minute tours of the Social Science Library for new visiting students, and any students who would like a “refresher” tour of the library:

  • Thursday 16th January, 3pm
  • Friday 17th January, 3pm

Drop in, no need to book.

A side ways views of a laptop, with a close up of hands typing on the keyboard. To the right is a plant in a pot.

Bodleian Libraries Welcome/Refresher Webinar

Welcome/Refresher webinars will also be taking place this week (0th week of Hilary term).

They will be hosted via Microsoft teams and are 30 minutes long. The content will be the same as that delivered to new undergraduate and visiting students in 0th week of Michaelmas term and is aimed at new incoming visiting students and existing undergraduate and taught-postgraduate students who would like a refresher.

The dates and times are:

  • Wednesday 15th January, 3pm – 3.30pm
  • Thursday 16th January, 10.30am – 11.00am
  • Friday 17th January, 1.30pm – 2pm

Registration is required via the booking links on the iSkills webpage. Students will require their Single Sign On credentials to book but, if this is still to be arranged, for visiting students for example, you can email the Information Skills Office and they will book a place for you.

Our Resource of the Month for January: Cite Them Right

Each month, one of our Subject Librarians chooses an electronic resource which they feel will be of interest to you.

Sarah Rhodes (Subject Consultant for International Development and Forced Migration) sat at a computer in the Social Science Library. Book shelves are in the background.

January’s Resource of the Month has been selected by Sarah Rhodes, Subject Consultant for International Development and Forced Migration.

An open laptop on a table with the words 'Cite Them Right' on the screen. Next to it is a cup of coffee and a pad and pen.

Sarah’s choice is Cite Them Right. It was chosen as a comprehensive yet easy to use tool which provides online support for students requiring assistance in referencing essay and dissertation sources correctly.

Overview

The Cite Them Right platform contains articles, tutorials and videos to guide students into common queries around referencing. Support includes choosing referencing styles; learning how to reference different formats including books, articles, digital, governmental and legal materials; and understanding why referencing is important. Students will also find sections on avoiding plagiarism; finding, evaluating and using source material; and the impact of Artificial Intelligence on academia.

Where can you access the resource

This resource is available to access via SOLO.

Single-Sign-On (SSO) is required this database remotely, as it is restricted to Oxford University students and staff members.

Book of the Month for January

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

January’s Book of the Month was selected by Sarah Rhodes, Subject Consultant for International Development and Forced Migration

Authoritarian practices and humanitarian negotiations

Edited by Andrew J Cummingham

Routledge, 2024

JC480.AUT 2024

It was chosen to highlight the challenges faced by humanitarian organisations in negotiating access to people in authoritarian states.

Book Overview

Utilising a wide variety of perspectives and examining a range of contexts, this book considers how humanitarians assess and engage with authoritarian practices and negotiate access to populations in danger.

Reviews

‘Delivering vital aid to crisis-affected people often hinges on complex humanitarian negotiations. By combining concrete operational examples with political theory, [this book] offers a deeper understanding and sharper analytical lens for aid practitioners and scholars grappling with these issues.’

Dr. Abby Stoddard, Founding partner of Humanitarian Outcomes.

How can I access it?

We have one lending copy of this book, which is located on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is JC480.AUT 2024. It is also available as an eBook which can be accessed from a Bodleian Library computer or use it remotely, by logging on to SOLO with your SSO.

Image of an open book with the pages curled to form a love heart

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

Bodleian Offsite Storage Requests and Scan & Deliver Requests: Christmas Downtime Period

Cartoon drawing of a van with large books in the back of it.

Requests from Bodleian Offsite Storage

The last delivery for items requested from Bodleian Offsite Storage to the Social Science Library before our Christmas closure, will be the afternoon of Friday 20th December.

To ensure the items you require arrive in this delivery, requests should be placed before 10.30am on Friday 20th December.

Deliveries will recommence in the new year when we re-open (from Thursday 2nd January).

Requests can still be requested on SOLO during the library closure period, they just won’t be fetched and processed until we are open again in the New Year.

Staff member scanning a book

Scan & Deliver

Scan & Deliver is a free electronic document delivery service which enables you to obtain scans of book chapters or journal articles via email from the Bodleian Libraries’ print collections.

Please note that the Scan & Deliver request form on SOLO will close at 5pm on Tuesday 17th December. Please ensure you place any requests required before the Christmas closure period by this deadline. The request form will reopen at 9am on Thursday 2nd December.

A wooden floor with the words 'SSL Christmas Closure Period' on it. Below are parcels, stars, baubles, dried orange segments and greenery.

We will be closed from Tuesday 24th December 2024 to Wednesday 1st January 2025 (dates inclusive).

Note that the library will close at 5pm on Monday 23rd December and re-open at 9am on Thursday 2nd January.

 

Library PC upgrade: Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th December

An image of the main reader PC area in the Social Science Library

Between Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th December the library’s reader PCs will be replaced with newer models.

Due to low usage, the number of PCs in the main Reader PC area will be reduced to 16.

Some PCs will remain available throughout the work, either in the main Reader PC area, or in the Information Skills Training Room.

Please ask staff if you need any help finding an available PC.

Our Book of the month choice for December

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

December’s Book of the month is:

Front cover of the book 'Cryones: Збірка зовсім недитячих дитячих історій / A collection of not-at-all childish children’s stories' on top of it is a rosette with 'SSL Book of the Month' on it.

Cryones: Збірка зовсім недитячих дитячих історій / A collection of not-at-all childish children’s stories

The children involved in Gen.Ukrainian

Kyiv: Gen.Ukrainian, 2024

Shelfmark: HQ792.U38.CRY 2024

The Book of the Month for December will be distressing for some. It manifests the lived experience of war for children, in their own pictures, stories and words. Cryones came out of Gen.Ukrainian, a project to help Ukraine’s children heal through art. It presents pictures and stories from contemporary Ukrainian children.

Book Overview

The title ‘Cryones’ is a mixture of the English words ‘crayon’, and ‘cry ones’. It refers to Gen.Ukrainian’s rehabilitation of Ukrainian children who have suffered psychological trauma, through art therapy. Gen.Ukrainian is a non-governmental organisation that was set up in 2022: it strives to heal children who have experienced the horrors of the Russian invasion first-hand. Cryones was published as a testament both to the creativity of Ukrainian children, and the reality of their suffering. Oksana Lebedieva, one of the project’s leaders, emphasises that the book’s authors and artists are the children who came to Gen.Ukrainian: the adults only organised the material and production.

Cryones offers a series of stories in pictures, drawings, collages and texts, made by their child-authors. One of these authors is Katya, a talented gymnast from Maripol’, known to the father she lost as людина пружина, or ‘the little human spring’. Another is Luka, consoled by a new friendship with a dog called Red. The children tell profoundly tragic stories – and yet they finish the book with their visions of a bright, peaceful future. Ukrainian texts are translated into English, while the pictures speak for themselves.

How can I access it?

You can currently find this book around the corner from our Issue Desk, above our New Books display. This title is for library use only and its shelfmark is HQ792.U38.CRY 2024

Image of an open book with the pages curled to form a love heartWhat would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

December Resource of the Month: Russian Military and Security Periodicals

Each month we choose an electronic resource which we feel will be of interest to you.

Our Resource of the Month for December is a database from East View, Russian Military and Security Periodicals. Use this database to read and cross-search dozens of Russian military journals, whether privately owned or government-sponsored. Some journal holdings contain issues from the 1990s, affording longitudinal analyses.

Resource Overview

Journals and newspapers on Russia’s military industries, sciences and infrastructures may not sound like appealing reading – but sadly the Russian Federation’s aggression in Ukraine makes them a source analysts cannot afford to ignore. Periodicals like Kryl’ia Rodiny [Wings of the motherland] and Voprosy Zashchity Informatsii [Questions of the Defence of Information] offer crucial insights into Russia’s extensive military establishments. Readers may find their content distressing and disturbing: please approach this database with caution and self-care.

Where can you access the resource

This resource can be accessed via SOLO. A Single-Sign-On (SSO) is required to access the titles remotely, as they are restricted to Oxford University students and staff members.

 

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