Radcliffe Science Library

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Radcliffe Science Library
Location	University of Oxford, England
Website	http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/rsl/

John Radcliffe, former student at the University of Oxford and royal physician, after whom the Radcliffe Science Library is named.

The Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) is the main teaching and research science library at the University of Oxford, England.

Being officially part of the Bodleian Library, although with a completely separate building, the library holds the Legal Deposit material for the sciences and is thus entitled to receive a copy of all British scientific publications. The library holds around a million items, with about a quarter of the holdings on display in the reading rooms. The rest are held in book stacks. The library was a reference library rather than a lending library until October 2007 [1]. The nearby Hooke Library which was a science lending library for undergraduates, was integrated into the RSL during August 2007.

The library was originally housed in the Radcliffe Camera, but now stands on the corner of Parks Road and South Parks Road in the Science Area of the University, next to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Much of it is underground — the physical sciences reading room is beneath the southern half of the lawn in front of the museum.

The library is named after John Radcliffe, a major benefactor of the University, like a number of other buildings in Oxford.

[edit] The Building

Looking south at the RSL: The Worthington Wing in the foreground

The RSL building consists of different wings developed as expansion of the library was necessary

The Jackson Wing was designed by Sir Thomas Jackson in 1901 and is listed Grade II. This wing currently houses parts of the RSL and formally housed part of the Hooke Library on the staircase at its east end. It is arranged over 3 floors, all above ground, with two reading rooms and administration offices.

The Worthington Wing was designed as an extension to the Jackson Wing in 1934 by Hubert Worthington. The wing extends to the north of the western end of the Jackson Wing and contains two reading rooms, on the first and second floors, and the library entrance hall on the ground floor.

The Lankester Room and Main Stack extension was built in 1975. The Lankester Room is a large reading room of the library containing books and periodicals. The stack contains additional storage for books, readers do not have access to the stack, but can request any title to be brought up from the stack.[2]