Getting started: Undergraduates and taught postgraduates

Hello and welcome to this Bodleian Libraries Welcome for new undergraduate and visiting students. This is a recording of the Welcome Webinar that took place in Michaelmas term of the academic year 2024-25. There will be a combination of PowerPoint presentation and live demonstration. The webinar will run through the basics of what you need to get started in the Bodleian Libraries.

Moving on to what we'll be covering today and the learning outcomes, by the end of this webinar, you will understand how to find and access items on your reading list, the network of the Bodleian Libraries, the computers, Wi-Fi and print, copy, scan facilities, what disability support there is and where to get further help.

We are going to follow a student's journey as they settle into the University and how to use the Bodleian Libraries. Meet Amy. Amy is a new first year undergraduate student at Keble College studying mathematics and philosophy.

The philosophy department has published an online reading list, and Amy needs to read a chapter in an electronic book or e-book. Amy accesses her course on Canvas, which is the University's Virtual Learning Environment for teaching and learning where you can access course materials, get feedback on your work, start discussions and collaborate with other students or academics, and access your reading lists where available. Amy needs her Single-Sign-On credentials to log into Canvas, which she will have received ahead of her arrival at Oxford. From her course in Canvas, she is able to open her ORLO reading list. ORLO stands for Oxford Reading Lists Online.

In my web browser, I have opened the philosophy reading list in ORLO. Amy has been told by her tutor that in the reading list there is a book chapter she needs to read called 'Is Hume's Principle Analytic?' As Amy is unsure where to find it in the reading list, she uses the search function at the top of the page and enters the chapter title. You can either click the magnifying glass icon to the right of the search bar, or hit the enter button on your keyboard to submit the search.

There are two results with the same title. The results list a chapter and a journal article. The book chapter is the one she was after. The chapter is in the book The Archè Papers on the Mathematics of Abstraction. The book chapter shows as 'Essential'. Some items in reading lists will be marked as essential in this way. Below the title, there is a 'View online' option. Amy clicks on it and it takes her to the whole e-book on the provider's website.

For more information about using ORLO, including some top tips, take a look at our Reading Lists webpage.

So far we have been looking at Amy's online reading list in ORLO. Amy has been given another reading list for maths, but this time it is in PDF format, not on ORLO. While some courses use ORLO reading lists, others may choose a PDF or Word format. Amy has an essential reading from that list to complete prior to her lecture. Amy happens to be in her college library and goes to the enquiry desk for help from the library staff. The staff explain the citation to her. The chapter's author is G.C. Smith. The chapters she needs to find don't have titles. They are 'chapters 1 & 2'. She notes that the chapter details come first in this reference. The chapter is in a book authored by G. C. Smith. The book title is 'Introductory Mathematics, Algebra and Analysis' and you've got the publication details at the end.

Where does Amy need to go to search for the book? The library staff explain that Amy needs to search for the book title and book author on SOLO, the University's resource discovery tool, and stands for Search Oxford Libraries Online. Amy will need to check any references in her PDF reading list in SOLO. The information Amy needs is the book title and author.

Just to say today that we are demonstrating how to find a book on SOLO, but SOLO can be used to find lots of other reading list material, like journal articles.

For the best results, Amy signs into SOLO with her Single Sign On credentials via solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Logging into SOLO means you will see more results, especially for online material, and you can access your account where you will see your loans and any requests you have placed.

Time to move on to a live demonstration of SOLO. Here is the SOLO home page. To sign in, click the 'Sign In' button at the top right of the screen. If you are a University of Oxford student, click the 'University of Oxford Students & Staff' option and enter your Single Sign On credentials. If you are a visiting student, click the 'Other Bodleian Card Holders' option and enter the barcode number on your library card along with the unique password you set.

Remember from Amy's conversation with the librarian earlier that she cannot put the whole citation from her reading list into a SOLO search, and hope that she will find the chapter. Amy enters the book title and book author into SOLO. You hit enter on your keyboard, or click the magnifying glass icon to the right of the search bar to submit your search. Looking at the top search result, Amy sees that there are multiple versions of the book available and clicks '4 versions of this record exist. See all versions'. SOLO clusters print and online versions of the same title, as well as different editions. There is one online version of this book. Amy clicks 'Online access'. SOLO opens the full record for the e-book. Amy notes that there is unlimited access to the e-book. She clicks the link to the e-book provider, in this case 'E-book Central'. The e-book opens in a new browser tab, where Amy can then select the chapters she needs to read.

Amy has been given a reading list for Philosophy in PDF format. The reading list has a book she needs to read. Thanks to the help she received earlier from her college librarian interpreting a book chapter reference in her reading list, Amy can figure out that in this case that the book's authors are Mill, J. S. and Crisp, R. The book title is Utilitarianism. The publisher details are Oxford University Press, and the book was published in 1998. Because this is a PDF reading list, Amy needs to search for the book title and author/editor on SOLO.

In the SOLO search screen, I'm going to enter the book title and the authors: Utilitarianism Mill Crisp. In the results, Amy cannot immediately find the book, so she uses the Sort & Filter options on the left to filter to the Resource Type 'Books'. Amy sees that there are multiple versions of the book available and clicks '26 versions of this record exist. See all versions'. Amy finds the 1998 print copy of the book and clicks 'Find & Request'. This brings up a list of libraries that have a copy of the book. Amy finds that her college, Keble, does not have any copies of the book, but the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library does, which any member of University can use. The Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library have multiple copies of the book, which are available. Amy clicks one of the copies and sees additional information: 'Item in place' and 'Loanable'. Many of the Bodleian Libraries' books are available on the open shelves like this one. This means that you can walk into the library and take the book off the shelf yourself. You can usually see on SOLO where the book is in the library from the Item Location, which will vary depending on where you're collecting the book from. In this case, the item lives on the Ground Floor Reading Room Open Shelves. You can also see the shelf mark here: B1603.U873 M54 CRI 1998 which tells you where in the library you can find the book, so it should be really easy for Amy to go to the library and pick up the book she wants. If a book is available on the open shelf, it's often faster to collect it yourself.

I am going to click 'Back to locations' to see a list of all the copies of the book this library has. If a book is on loan, this will be made clear in SOLO by saying 'Check availability'. If I click the item, I get further information. It says "In use until 15/10/2024". This shows that the book is on loan. You'll see that there's a 'Request Options' button. If you click this, you can place a request on the item. This means the person using the book will be asked to bring the book back to the library by the date listed. When it's returned, you'll be notified and the book will be set aside for you to collect in the library. This is a free service. There is also the 'Scan & Deliver' button next to the Request Options. This option means that library staff will scan the item for you and send it to you in PDF format via email. If you cannot make it to the library to collect a physical copy of a book, this is a good option.

Things to note about Scan & Deliver: you can place up to two requests at any one time; you may only request up to one chapter or article from a book or journal issue, as governed by copyright legislation; requests are normally fulfilled within seven days; Scan & Deliver is free.

I am going to navigate my way back to the cluster of books by clicking the X button on the left of the screen. Some of our books can't be taken out of the libraries, they can only be read inside. If I show you quickly the newer 2014 copy of this book and click 'Find & Request', you can spot that the book cannot be borrowed because it says 'Use in library only'. It is at the Bodleian Offsite Storage and says 'Must request delivery' and you do that by clicking Request Options. You will only be given the 'Use in library' loan policy option. Similarly, when you try to request the book, you only be given the yellow 'Read at' locations rather than the green 'Borrow from' locations, which you might see when requesting loanable books.

What has Amy learned about finding items on her reading lists? Reading lists may be online via ORLO or in a PDF or Word format. With online reading lists, you can click through to read a book online. With PDF and Word reading lists, you need to search for books via SOLO. On SOLO, look for copies in your subject library and college library which show both 'Item in place' and 'Loanable'. For print books, it is usually easiest to go to the library and take the book off the shelf yourself.

Summarising how to place requests on print books: if a book is on loan use the 'Request options' to place a hold on the book; use Scan & Deliver to receive a PDF copy of a book chapter via email; if there are no 'In place' items, then it is likely the only copy available to you is a print copy from Offsite Storage.

Equipped with this information, Amy is ready to head out to the library and get her book. So what comes next? As we saw earlier, Amy has found out through SOLO that one of the books from her reading list is available at the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library. First things first, she needs to find out where that library is.

If I navigate to SOLO and find the 1998 copy of the book Utilitarianism, click Find & Request and locate the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library in the list, there is an 'i' information icon next to the library name. Clicking the 'i' icon takes you directly through to information about a particular library on the Bodleian Libraries website, in this instance, the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library. Most usefully for Amy, we can see the opening hours of the library as well as its address. Amy knows this location. This library is close to both the mathematics and philosophy faculties, so it's very easy for Amy to get to.

But Amy doesn't just want to borrow a book. She's also looking for somewhere she can sit down and study for a few hours with a nice cup of coffee. If we click this Libraries button at the top of the page, this gives you a list of all 26 Bodleian libraries. That's quite a lot of libraries to choose from, but helpfully you can filter them by lots of different factors, for example, accessibility, available facilities, opening hours, and even whether or not you can bring your own coffee in a KeepCup. If I click 'Atmosphere', I can find 'Hot and cold drinks allowed' as an option. Clicking that option, I can see that the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library allows KeepCups. It is worth noting that some departments also have their own libraries, for example Earth sciences, and each of the colleges has its own library too. While you can use any of the Bodleian Libraries, you can only use the library in your college.

There's one more thing Amy wants to check before she goes to get her book. She wants to know how many books you can borrow at once. She's got a lot of reading to do, so she needs to keep an eye on how much she's borrowing. If you hover over the menus to the top of the web page, open the Services menu and click 'Borrow & Reserve', you will be taken to a lot of helpful information about borrowing including, most helpful to Amy, information about loan limits for undergraduates. There's a lot of detail here, but the headlines are that she can borrow up to 20 items across the Bodleian Libraries, loans will automatically renew for a maximum of 16 weeks unless requested by another reader, in which case she needs to return the book ASAP. If you have overdue books, you'll be blocked from borrowing. Amy's college library will have its own separate rules about borrowing.

In addition to the assigned reading, Amy's tutor has asked the students meet up in small groups of four to discuss the book ahead of the lecture. Luckily for Amy, the Bodleian does offer group study rooms, some on a walk-in basis, some bookable in advance. If we go back to the Libraries page and follow this 'Browse group study rooms' link, we can see a full list of study rooms. This will detail what library they're in, what the capacity is, and what information is available. Amy knows that someone in her group needs step-free access. If we go back to the Libraries page, and under 'Accessibility' narrow down to 'Step-free access', we can see which libraries are most easily accessible for her study group. Checking both lists against each other, Amy looks down the table and sees that the Law Library has a room for four people and the Libraries web page shows that the Law Library has step-free access. If we click 'Book Discussion Room 1', you can see that the description confirms step-free access. Amy can book the room for her study group in advance by using the tool at the bottom of the page.

Now Amy knows where to find her book and how to borrow it. The last thing she needs is her University card, or 'Bod card' as we sometimes call them. You'll need to use this card to get into all University buildings and libraries. Most doors will have a card reader on them.

While borrowing her books from the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library, Amy notices an interesting looking book at the library reception called Decision Theory: An Introduction to the Mathematics of Rationality. She knows her tutor mentioned a chapter in this book, which is especially useful for one of her upcoming essays. Amy asks the library staff whether she can use the book, and they explain that it is for use in the library only, but she would be welcome to photocopy or scan a chapter of the book for herself using the PCAS service. Amy asks what PCAS stands for, and the staff member explains that it stands for Print, Copy and Scan and shows Amy a leaflet explaining how she can get started using PCAS. Her username is her university card barcode number and she can set her password at register.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. They also explain that scanning is free of charge, but Amy would need to add some credit to her account to make a photocopy or to use the service to print and credit is added via the web address pcas.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Amy decides to scan a chapter and email it to herself. She finds the PCAS machine on the ground floor of the library and taps her card on the card reader. She then enters her account details. Helpfully, that means her card is now linked to her PCAS account, so all she needs to do in future to use any of these machines in any of the Bodleian Libraries is tap her card. The machine automatically fills in her college email address, so she scans the pages she needs, and the PDF appears in her emails on her phone straight away. She can see the copyright notice on the wall says that she can scan one whole chapter of the book and stay within UK copyright laws, but she wouldn't be allowed to scan more than one chapter from the same book. Amy knows she would like to print out the first draft of her essay later in the week, so she goes to pcas.bodleian.ox.ac.uk and adds some credit there ready for when she has finished the draft.

Amy settles into the reading room at the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library and gets out her laptop to work on her essay. She wants to connect it to the Wi-Fi network, so she looks in her list of networks and sees Eduroam, which she has already used in college and in the department. She also sees 'Bodleian Libraries' in the list of networks. She could connect to that network instead, using the same details she used to sign into PCAS. Unfortunately, her laptop is running out of battery power and she has forgotten her charger. She asks to borrow a charger at the library desk. The library normally has one, but unfortunately it has already been borrowed by another student. The library assistant suggests using a library PC instead. He explains that to log into a library PC, Amy needs to use the same Bodleian Libraries log in details she used for the PCAS service.

What has Amy learned here? There is a Bodleian Libraries username and password which is separate from your Single Sign On credentials. This account is used for connecting to the Bodleian Libraries Wi-Fi, logging onto the reading room PCs, the print, copy and scan facilities. The password is set at the web address www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/library-account.

Amy has dyslexia and is worried she won't be able to read her books by their due date. She mentions this to a member of staff at the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library, and explains she is also very tired with fatigue from long Covid. The Philosophy and Theology Faculties Disability Liaison Librarian points Amy towards the Bodleian Libraries Disability librarian. Information is on the webpage you see on the slide.

After speaking to the Disability Librarian, Amy learns that she can use SensusAccess for free, which converts documents into alternative formats. She likes the idea of converting some of her reading into an MP3 file, so that she can listen to it on the move. While looking at the SensusAccess information on the Bodleian Libraries website, Amy also notices that the libraries have adjustable furniture.

The Disability Librarian signposts Amy to the University's Disability Advisory Service because they will be able to provide recommendations for support including extended loan allowances and increased loan limits, both of which Amy is interested in to give her more time to read the books on her reading lists. The Disability Advisory Service can also arrange for proxy borrowers (a person to collect books from a library on another person's behalf), membership of the RNIB Bookshare (a database of accessible texts available to print-disabled people) and ARACU support, who provide alternative formats to printed material.

The following week, Amy cannot find a book she wants to read. She talks to the philosophy subject librarian, who she finds via the Subject Librarians webpage on the Bodleian Libraries website. The subject librarian confirms that the Bodleian Libraries does not have a copy of the book. Amy fills in the Recommend a Purchase form.

The subject librarian makes Amy aware of all the ways she can get further help if she needs it in the future. Amy can: ask library staff in person when she is in the library; use the Live Chat service available on SOLO and on the Bodleian Libraries website; she can email her subject libraries, details of which are on the website; she can email her subject librarian whenever she wants, as she has already done; she can contact the central Reader Services team, who are very knowledgeable and can be contacted about anything in the Bodleian Libraries. The email address is reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

To summarise what you have hopefully learned by the end of this presentation, we have covered: how to find and access items on your reading list using ORLO and SOLO; the network of the 26 Bodleian Libraries and its services, such as borrowing permissions and study rooms; computers, Wi-Fi and PCAS; the Scan & Deliver service; disability support; and further help.

Thank you very much for listening.

• Welcome webinar presentation (pptx)
• SOLO guide (PDF)