Service updates

Updates on services, resources, and support available to help you carry on with your work and research.

For further help or questions, please email reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or use our Live Chat service in the footer of this page.

Page last updated: 30 September 2025

Latest service changes

Extended offsite lending in Michaelmas 2025

  • An additional 1.4 million books housed in Bodleian offsite storage are now available to borrow for University members, bringing the total to 2 million.
  • Items published after 2000 will be available to borrow unless they fall into excluded categories. 
  • Older offsite items that can already be borrowed will stay that way.

Borrowing terms

Items can be borrowed according to our usual rules for borrowing and reserving books.

All Bodleian card holders can reserve books that are currently on loan. Items will have a one-week loan period, so they should be unavailable for no longer than 7 days.

Why this matters

  • This creates a more inclusive service for readers who face challenges in accessing collections during available opening hours.
  • It offers more flexibility for readers who find library spaces difficult to use, allowing them to choose environments that suit their study preferences or needs.
  • It responds to feedback from 2024 University consultations and repeated concerns from reader surveys.

Review and feedback

We will closely monitor extended lending for items held offsite. A formal review will take place in 2027.

Please send any feedback, or forward any comments from readers, to reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Specialist digital resources

At the end of 2024, we had to take a number of specialist digital resources offline. This was a precautionary step in line with University guidance to ensure we were protected from a hostile cyber-attack.

We acknowledge this had to happen faster than we would have liked and we were unable to give much advance notice to the affected scholars and communities who used the resources. We apologise for the disruption to your research.

For the resources that are currently unavailable we have been developing plans to either rebuild and replace the sites (which requires additional funding to be secured), or to incorporate the data into existing digital infrastructure, or in some cases to allow other organisations to take responsibility for hosting the data.

The following information shows how each of our resources are being managed through this transition.

The following sites are being rebuilt:

The material from the following sites will be incorporated into existing central catalogues. While this may mean that some of the original functionality is lost, it will make sure the content can be maintained and delivered in a resilient and sustainable manner long into the future. We will work to support users during this transition.

The information from these sites is already available elsewhere:

Accessing content in the meantime

Our main digital platforms and services (such as SOLO, MARCO, ORA, Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts, Digital Bodleian, Scan and Deliver, and specialist manuscript catalogues) remain available. On each withdrawn resource, we have outlined where it is possible to access the data whilst the resource is unavailable.

Thank you for your patience and understanding

– Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian

Queen Victoria's Journals digital resource

The Queen Victoria’s Journals digital resource is now available again to anyone in the UK.

The new service is a partnership between the Bodleian Libraries, ProQuest and the Royal Archives. Access is provided by the UK National Access Account.

Related links

 

  • Borrow items
    Our services for borrowing items
  • Request items to a library
    Request items for delivery to one of our libraries
  • Scan and Deliver
    Order and receive scans of book chapters and articles by email
  • Inter-library requests
    Request items not held in an Oxford library