Some things will be quite different: we’ll be sharing the building with our colleagues from Reuben College and our GLAM colleagues will have space in the basement for the Collections Teaching and Research Centre (CTRC). We have adapted the library area to make the best use of the space we have, based on the feedback from our readers. We’ll have casual seating areas, more group study rooms and flexibility within some of spaces such as in our Seminar Room. Also, we’ve listened to our readers comments and improved the WiFi. Some things will stay the same. We’ll still have a modern and diverse collection of print books on subjects in Mathematics, Physical and Life Science and medical Sciences. We’ll still have training room facilities and emerging technologies such as our 3D printing service. And we’ll still have a team of friendly, knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff who are happy to answer questions.
Will there still be books?
Although the majority of our collection has become electronic there will still be a substantial print book collection in the RSL. We’re used to adapting our collection over time. First the science collection was housed in the Radcliffe Camera and then moved to the University Museum. When the collection outgrew that space, a new building was constructed, containing the Jackson Wing in 1901. That same wing, with its large windows and impressively decorated ceiling will contain our Quiet Reading Room. Our Informal Reading Room will now be located in the Worthington Wing, where quiet discussion will be encouraged with armchairs and a variety of different seating arrangements.
Throughout September the books from the science collection are being moved from the Vere Harmsworth Library back to the reading rooms by the very capable Bodleian Book Moving team. Other titles will be moved from our offsite storage facility to be permanently housed in the RSL. Our readers told us that they wanted to borrow more books so we have made an additional 6,000 books borrowable. The vast majority of our collection of over 20,000 books can now be borrowed.
Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable
Students also told us that they wanted to eat and drink in the library. In the areas outside the Reading Rooms you can eat and drink as much as you like. Whether it’s picking up snacks from our vending machines or using our hot water facilities to make your own tea and coffee you can keep yourself fuelled for study in the RSL. We’ll be providing tea and coffee for the first few weeks of term so you can try it out yourself.
Wellbeing
Along with being a space for study and research the Radcliffe Science Library is also a place for 
the University of Oxford community, particularly our MPLS and MSD community. To support the needs of our student and staff communities, in line with the University Strategic Plan, the RSL refurbishment has made space for a Wellbeing Room. Wellbeing is an area growing in importance in universities and many other libraries have incorporated wellbeing rooms, especially since the pandemic.
The Wellbeing Room features comfortable sofas, armchairs and bean bags as well as a table where people can sit to craft or play games. You are welcome to bring your own or try out a new hobby from the equipment in the room. We have knitting, crochet, origami, modelling clay, Lego, board games and colouring in. Alternatively, if you’d prefer a quieter experience why not play with one of our fidget toys, curl up under a weighted blanket or try the noise cancelling headphones. If you’d prefer some leisure reading we also have that on hand. The room will house our Wellbeing Collection which includes self help books, poetry, books on mental health, comic books and novels.
We’ll be running a programme of events focussed on wellbeing throughout the term. More details to follow but highlights include: Lego lunchtimes, nature walks and colouring in. Make sure to follow our social media and library website to get updates on our activities.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As part of the RSL refurbishment, we have been working on a new Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion project, where we asked for students and staff of the university to recommend scientific figures for inclusion in our new portraiture around the library. Our blog post has more details.
Dame Janet Maria Vaughan. Image originally by Elliott & Fry, reproduced by National Portrait Gallery, London. Licensed under CC BY NC ND 3.0 licence
This collection of portraiture includes deceased scientists, some well-known and others lesser known, spanning from the 16th to the 21st centuries. They represent various aspects of inclusion through their career choices, achievements, and personal characteristics.
Along with the portrait of Dr. John Radcliffe, who the library is named after, we will have an inclusive selection of portraiture that reflects the diversity of the modern Oxford University. We hope that the RSL will be an inspiring place for study and reflection, where you feel welcome, valued, and respected.
Take a look around
“The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species.”
- Carl Sagan, Cosmos
We’ve only covered a handful of features of the newly refurbished RSL. There’s more to see and explore so come in during Michaelmas Term and take a look for yourself. We’d love to know what you think. Tell our staff in the library what you think or let us know on twitter or by emailing bodleian-rsl-enquiries@maillist.ox.ac.uk.