Calling all Historians: Proposed move of the History Faculty Library

Bodleian Libraries is consulting with staff and students of the History Faculty over the proposal to transfer the existing services and collections of the History Faculty Library to the Radcliffe Camera during the Long Vacation 2012.

The proposal will improve:

• Your library: services and collections centred in the iconic Rad Cam. Borrow from Lower Camera.
• Your time: 24 extra hours per week, and all day Saturday and Sunday opening. > more
• Your convenience: Access on a single site to all history collections. > more
• Your books, journals and databases: More funding for books, journals, and databases.
• Your space: More desks and varied spaces > more
• Your library support team: Better and more specialist support for historians offered by re-grouped HFL staff into the History Information Services Team

The proposal has to be seen in the context of the following:

• agreed consolidation of Humanities libraries into fewer sites as a long-term strategic aim;
• continuing aspirations for service improvement set against pressure on finances;
• the likely delay in development of the main Humanities facility at the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter for some years;
• the threat of extremely disruptive building works when a lift is installed in the Old Indian Institute (OII) building in 2012/13 and associated significant and permanent loss of shelf, reader and support space;
• ability to fully fund the move and improvements to working environments.

For more information about the proposal and the consultation, please see the History Faculty Library website at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/about/hfl-move. The HFL is also regularly updating their blog with news about the consultation at http://historyatox.wordpress.com.

Image credit: HFL