Library closed week 24th-28th August

The Continuing Education Library will be closed for stock checking from 24th-28th August, reopening after the Bank Holiday on Tuesday 1st September.

During the closed week, the reading room will remain open as usual and books may be returned to the returns box there. If you have access to Student Computer room at Rewley House you can access all library electronic resources there.

If you use other Oxford University Libraries, please note that many of the smaller libraries have closed periods in August, eg.

• English Faculty Library: closed 17th August - 4th September
• History Faculty Library: closed 17th -31st August

However all major libraries are open throughout the summer (except August Bank Holiday, 31st August), eg Bodleian Library, Radcliffe Science Library, Sackler Library, Social Science Library.

Full details of all opening hours can be found on the OULS website

Disruption on Friday 3rd July

Essential repair work to the library staircase is being carried out on Friday 3rd July.

The Reading Room, Upper Library and Library Desk will be open and operating as usual. It is inevitable however that there will be noise, dust and a certain amount of smell.

The Lower library will not be available for study and the two reader PCs will be out of use. It will however be possible to obtain books from the lower library stacks by using the fire exit. If you need books from the lower floor, please ask at the Library Desk and staff will either fetch books for you or show you the way down.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by this work, which is necessary for safety reasons

Electronic books for Historians

Oxford University has subscribed to Oxford Scholarship Online History, the online collection of scholarly history monographs published by OUP. This expands the original collections for Philosophy, Religion and Political Sciences.

Individual titles can be found on SOLO or go to OxLIP+ to view the complete collection. E-books can be freely accessed from any computer on the Oxford network. Readers with a full University card can also access e-books from any location using the Single Sign On.

The History Faculty Library has compiled a very useful guide to the full range of e-books available to Historians

New online newspaper archives available

New electronic resources:

Guardian (1821-2003) and Observer(1791-2003)
Scotsman (1817-1950)
Irish Times (1859-2007) and Irish Weekly Times (1865-1950)

Accessible via SOLO or OxLIP+. Single Sign On (available to full members of Oxford University) required for access from outside the Oxford network

Would you like to become WISER?

If you are in Oxford and free during the lunchtime period there are some excellent 1 hour sessions delivered by Oxford librarians as part of the WISER (Workshops for Information Skills and Electronic Resources). Most sessions are held at Oxford University Computer Services in Banbury Road and are free, but should be booked in advance. Highlights for this term include:

• Managing Your References, Friday 8th May - looks at software available for recording and formatting your references


• The First World War Digital Poetry Archive, Tuesday 19th May


• Early English Books Online (EEBO) Friday 29th May


• Maps and Mapping, Tuesday 2nd June


• Manuscripts, Tuesday 9th June - a look at the Bodleian manuscript collections and how to locate them


• Online Resources for Historians, Monday 15th June

For further details of these and other sessions, and for information on how to book, please see the WISER website

For all Local Historians!

You can now find a collection of Oxford University's electronic resources relevant to Local History on OxLIP+ , Oxford's gateway to electronic resources. From the OXLIP+ home page, click the Subject tab, then scroll down to select History in the box on the left. You will then see Local History in the box on the right. Select and click Go to view the list of resources which have been selected by the Continuing Education Librarian in collaboration with academic colleagues.

All resources can be accessed from any computer on the Oxford University network. For remote access to most of the resources (marked with a gold padlock symbol if viewed from outside Oxford) you will need your Single Sign On, available to members of the University with a full University card. Some freely available resources such as the National Archives are also included. A fuller list of freely available resources can be found on the Continuing Education Library website

Term time hours

As from Tuesday 14th April, we're back to term time opening hours. Full details of opening hours and term dates can be found on the Library website

Advance warning: the library is closed on the two May Bank Holidays, Monday 4th May and Monday 25th May