Subjects & Reading Rooms

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• Reading Rooms
  • Special Collections Reading Room at RSL
  • Duke Humfrey's Library
  • Indian Institute Reading Room
  • Lower Camera
  • Lower Reading Room
  • New Bodleian Reading Room
  • Official Papers
  • Upper Camera
  • Upper Reading Room
  • Gladstone Link
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Home  »   Subjects & Reading Rooms  »  Reading Rooms

The Bodleian Library is composed of a number of separate buildings and offers readers seven reading rooms to work in.  Details and the subject focus of each of the reading rooms is listed below. 

**Please note that during the latter half of 2010 and beyond the Bodleian Library is undergoing a number of building projects which aim to improve the facilities and services we offer to readers.  Details of the individual projects and any scheduled disruption are available here.** 

Duke Humfrey's Library is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library and a reading room for Maps, Music and some manuscripts and  pre-1701 Rare Books.  It is also the reading room in which University Archives, Conservative Party Archives and most Oxford University theses are consulted. The open-access books  in the Duke Humfrey's Library comprise: Music, Maps, Topography, Local History (including County Periodicals), Bibliography, Printing, Publishing,  Children’s Literature, Theatre and History of Photography. Readers may use only pencil in Duke Humfrey’s Library. Bags and cases may not be taken into the reading room and other security measures may be enforced.

The Gladstone Link offers readers a different and more flexible environment to work in. Furniture of various types, and group study tables in corners or behind acoustic screens, offer the opportunity for group work and quiet discussion as well as for independent study. Though not a reading room in the traditional sense, this new reader space links the Old Bodleian Library and Radcliffe Camera, increasing the size of the collection available on open access and the number of study places. It houses material from the book stack shown to be used regularly by readers, as well as the new scholarly intake from the last three years (currently 2009, 2010 and 2011). These items can now be accessed directly and no longer need to be ordered from closed stacks. The Gladstone Link also houses the Personal Development Collection, inspired and donated by Mr. Po Chung.

The Lower Camera Reading Room is the main undergraduate reading room of the central Bodleian for students studying Theology and English Literature. The reading room also contains the Bodleian open shelf collection of Film Studies materials. 

The Lower Reading Room is the principal reading room for all those studying Classics and Ancient History and Philosophy. It is also home to open shelf general Reference and Theology (Patristics) collections, and the Main Enquiry Desk.

The Official Papers Reading Room contains a comprehensive set of British parliamentary papers from 1801 to the present, as well as earlier records of the proceedings of Parliament and non-parliamentary papers, Republic of Ireland parliamentary and non-parliamentary papers, and the publications of international organisations, notably the United Nations. In September the reading room relocated from the Radcliffe Camera and is now available in the Bodleian Law Library.   

The Special Collections Reading Room at RSL is the research reading room in which western medieval and modern manuscripts, oriental manuscripts and rare books are consulted. Readers may use only pencil in the Special Collections Reading Room. Bags and cases may not be taken into the reading room and other security measures may be enforced.

The Upper Camera Reading Room is the main undergraduate reading room of the central Bodleian for students studying History, including material on the History of Art and on Archaeology, as well as holding a smaller collection of Anthropology books.

The Upper Reading Room is the principal research reading room for access to printed books and periodicals published after 1640 in the subject fields of Medieval and Modern History, English Language and Literature, and Linguistics.