Increased access to online books
Considerable effort has been made to acquire additional e-resources. 5,000 new e-books have been added to SOLO with temporary access arranged to another 60,000 on top of the 1.47 million e-books and 118,000 e-journals already available remotely to members of the University.
Many MSD reading list textbooks and other heavily borrowed books have already been purchased for online access and we are working hard to find and make available online versions of as many others as we can. This includes work in progress to provide trial access to major new e-textbook platforms such as BibliU, Kortext, and ClinicalKey Student (now available until the end of June at www.clinicalkey.com/student). Over and above this we are very keen to receive recommendations at enquiries.rsl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
Improved access to online journals
We have just introduced a new service called Browzine to provide easier access to online journal articles. Browzine has a standalone website (https://browzine.com/libraries/1704/subjects) and app, integration into SOLO, and a browser plugin which enables one-click downloads from around the Internet.
Evidence and literature searches
Our Outreach and Subject librarians are available to provide in-depth assistance to COVID-19 researchers across the MSD and the OUH. We’re already working with CEBM colleagues as part of the COVID-19 Evidence Service searching team and this support is available to all MSD research groups. Our team can undertake scoping and in-depth searches as well as advising on, and providing sense checks on, literature and evidence reviews that have already been developed. Please contact hcl.enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. And of course we’re still supporting all other aspects of learning, research, and clinical care which are continuing within the MSD and the OUH.
ORLO (online reading lists)
We are already working with several departments across MSD to make core reading lists available online via ORLO (https://oxford.rl.talis.com/index.html). For example, EP Prelims are in ORLO and the RSL team have also added reading lists on time for this term to support the teaching of Social Psychology Part 1. We are keen to expand this further across the Division. Library staff are available now to undertake all of the data entry and associated work to cut to an absolute minimum the effort required by our academic colleagues.
Online information skills training
Library staff are using the University’s preferred remote teaching tools and methods such as Teams, Skype and Panopto to deliver one-to-one help and advice to researchers and students, as well as the Bodleian iSkills programme (see https://tinyurl.com/bodskills) and subject-specific training tailored to the needs of student cohorts.
e-Reference services
Our library Live Chat service has been extended to operate 9am to 7pm on weekdays and 10am to 7pm at weekends. Enquiries sent to hcl.enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk and enquiries.rsl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk are also being answered remotely by staff and provide functional expertise for in-depth support.