Radcliffe Science Library | |
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51°45′28″N1°15′21″W / 51.7579°N 1.2559°W | |
Location | Parks Road, Oxford, England, England, United Kingdom |
Type | Academic library |
Established | 1861 |
Branch of | Bodleian Library |
Collection | |
Items collected | Books and journals in the biological sciences, computing science, experimental psychology, history of science, mathematics, medicine and the physical sciences |
Legal deposit | The library holds the Legal Deposit material in the sciences for Oxford University |
Access and use | |
Access requirements | University Card or Bodleian Libraries reader's card |
Other information | |
Website | www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries/rsl |
The Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) is the main teaching and research science library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Being officially part of the Bodleian Libraries, the library holds the Legal Deposit material for the sciences and is thus entitled to receive a copy of all British scientific publications.
Since 2023 the library has shared its buildings with Reuben College.
The physician John Radcliffe died in 1714, leaving money in his will to establish the Radcliffe Observatory, the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Radcliffe Library, which was intended to contain "modern books in all faculties and languages, not in the Bodleian Library". The library's building on a site south of the Bodleian Library was completed in 1749 and is now known as the Radcliffe Camera. [1]
The scientific books housed in the Radcliffe Camera were transferred to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in 1861. A new Radcliffe Library building opened in 1901, on land next to the museum (on the corner of Parks Road and South Parks Road). [2]
In 1927, the library lost its independence, for financial efficiency becoming part of the Bodleian Library. The library took on its current name, the Radcliffe Science Library, and gained the right as a legal deposit library to receive a copy of all new British scientific publications. [1]
The building has doors with relief wood carvings [3] by Don Potter, undertaken while he was studying with the sculptor Eric Gill. [4]
With the construction of a basement in the 1970s, part of the building was used to form The Hooke Library, a (separate) science lending library for undergraduates, which was named after Robert Hooke, a scientist who worked in Oxford. The Hooke Library housed its collection in the ground floor of the Abbot's Kitchen which was originally part of the University Museum and on the staircase at the eastern end of the Jackson Wing of the RSL. The area which housed the Hooke Library collection became part of the RSL, with the ground floor of the Abbot's Kitchen transformed into a refreshment area and a training room. [1]
Until 2007, the library was a reference library rather than a lending library. During 2007 the building and collection of the Hooke Library was integrated into the RSL. [5]
In December 2018 it was announced that the premises would be used as the basis of a new non-residential graduate college of the university, Reuben College, alongside the library. [6] The library closed for refurbishment in December 2019 and reopened in October 2023. [7]
The RSL building consists of three parts, developed as expansion of the library was necessary:
From 2023 the library occupies the second floors of the Jackson and Worthington buildings, the former Lankester room and stack are a museum Collections Teaching and Research Centre for the university and other spaces are used by Reuben College or shared. [9]
Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Vera Brittain and Dorothy L. Sayers. It began admitting men in 1994. Its library is one of Oxford's largest college libraries. The college's liberal tone derives from its founding by social liberals, as Oxford's first non-denominational college for women, unlike the Anglican Lady Margaret Hall, the other to open that year. In 1964, it was among the first to cease locking up at night to stop students staying out late. No gowns are worn at formal halls.
The Radcliffe Camera is a building of the University of Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in a Baroque style and built in 1737–49 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. It is sited to the south of the Old Bodleian, north of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, and between Brasenose College to the west and All Souls College to the east. The Radcliffe Camera's circularity, its position in the heart of Oxford, and its separation from other buildings make it the focal point of the University of Oxford, and as such it is almost always included in shorthand visual representations of the university. The Radcliffe Camera is not open to the public.
The Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom, and under Irish law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or "the Bod", it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms.
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The William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library is the main library at Ohio State University's Columbus campus. It is the university's largest library and houses its main stacks, special collections, rare books and manuscripts, and many departmental subject libraries. The library was originally built in 1912, and was renovated in 1951, 1977, and 2009. It is named in honor of the university's fifth president, William Oxley Thompson.
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The Indian Institute was an institute within the University of Oxford. It was started by Sir Monier Monier-Williams in 1883 to provide training for the Indian Civil Service of the British Raj. The institute's building is located in central Oxford, England, at the north end of Catte Street, on the corner with Holywell Street, and facing down Broad Street from the east.
The Bodleian Law Library (BLL) is an academic library in Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford University, the Bodleian Libraries and is also the library of the Faculty of Law. It is situated in part of the Grade II*-listed St Cross Building on St Cross Road in the parish of Holywell, on the corner of Manor Road.
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Green Templeton College (GTC) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The college is located on the former Green College site on Woodstock Road next to the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in North Oxford and is centred on the architecturally important Radcliffe Observatory, an 18th-century building, modelled on the ancient Tower of the Winds at Athens. It is the university's second newest graduate college, after Reuben College, having been founded by the historic merger of Green College and Templeton College in 2008.
The Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ) is a major University of Oxford development project in Oxford, England, in the estate of the old Radcliffe Infirmary hospital. The site, covering 10 acres is in central north Oxford. It is bounded by Observatory Street and Green Templeton College to the north, the Woodstock Road to the east, Somerville College to the south, and Walton Street to the west. The project and the new university area is named after the grade I listed Radcliffe Observatory to the north east of the site, now the centrepiece of Green Templeton College, which is intended to form the visual centrepiece of the project.
The Bodleian Libraries are a collection of 28 libraries that serve the University of Oxford in England, including the Bodleian Library itself, as well as many other central and faculty libraries. As of the 2021–2022 report year, the libraries collectively hold 13.5 million printed items, as well as numerous other objects and artefacts.
Duke Humfrey's Library is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. It is named after Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, who donated 281 books after his death in 1447. Sections of the libraries were restored and expanded in the 16th and 17th centuries, including the addition of a second storey, an east wing and a west wing. The library currently functions as a reading room.
The Vere Harmsworth Library is a dependent library of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
The University of Manchester Library is the library system and information service of the University of Manchester. The main library is on the Oxford Road campus of the university, with its entrance on Burlington Street. There are also ten other library sites, eight spread out across the university's campus, plus The John Rylands Library on Deansgate and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre situated inside Manchester Central Library.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city, university and colleges of Oxford, England.
Somerville College Library is the college library of Somerville College, one of the 38 colleges of the University of Oxford. The library is one of the largest college libraries at the University of Oxford and has achieved 100% student satisfaction in several annual surveys.
Reuben College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The plans for the new graduate college, preliminarily named Parks College, were announced in December 2018. It is the first new Oxford or Cambridge college founded since 1990, when the postgraduate Kellogg College, Oxford, was established. It is located in the Science Area on the historic Radcliffe Science Library site and took in its first graduate students in the 2021–2022 academic year.
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