Day at the Bodleian

In the current gap from work - a gap of indeterminate size which could finish at any time - I feel I have to really push on with MSc-related work. I am trying to do six hours a day on this at the moment, usually from about 5:30am till lunchtime. But with Linda and Emma away today in London, I could have a different sort of study day. So it was off to Oxford and visits to several of the libraries within the Bodleian complex, starting at the Radcliffe Science Library.

I was armed with my laptop and several pages of notes related to books that I might like to use on my course. First search was for copies of the Journal for the History of Astronomy, which I found really quickly. I spent a couple of hours reviewing the issues from the last six years and picking out all the articles that might be of some use. Some of the book reviews and review type articles look especially interesting. There is nearly 40 years of this journal at the Radcliffe which should give me hours of interesting reading.

Among the book reviews was one for Voelkel's The Composition of Kepler's Astronomia Nova. I had found this book earlier in the day and was very keen to have a look through it in detail. It is almost exactly the sort of book that I could have written. I can't remember if this was available from Amazon cheaply or not. But after some pondering, it occured to me that even if it was, I should copy a chapter or two to give a flavour of it. And learning how to copy things at the Bodleian was one of today's tasks - turns out you have to buy cards at one of the other libraries - 7p a sheet compared to 4p at LSE!

After 3 hours at the Radcliffe, I paused for lunch at Noodle Bar in Gloucester Green and then resumed study at the Bodleian Old Library - clearly the nicest bit - looking at various philosophy books - mainly Cambridge Companions to . . . Hume, Descartes, Bacon, Mill, etc. Each of these have some interesting articles on philosophy of science. I am intending to adopt a historical perspective to P of S at LSE if at all possible.

Back to the Radcliffe to copy the first chapter of Voelkel's book and then home. A very profitable day overall. At home I discovered that Voelkel costs £25 on Amazon secondhand, and that the LSE doesn't have a copy of it. But LSE does have most of the other books I am interested in at the moment and does lend them out. So that will probably be the way I do things rather than using the Bodleian as much. But it is really nice studying there though

Re-joining the Bodleian

Living close to Oxford, I have, in the past, had a readers ticket to the Bodleian library in the city centre. I had a ticket for 6 years ending in 2005, though it is fair to say that I didn't use the library a lot in that period. On a whim today, but clearly part of my planning for working on my MSc, I rejoined and bought a one year ticket, which works during both term time and vacations.

Soon after, while reading the guidebook to the library, I came across a mention of the Radcliffe Science Library. I have been passed this a couple of times on my way to the Pitt Rivers museum, but hadn't had a look round it alone before. One of the library staff explained the layout of the library and showed me how to work the online resources. Then I had a wander downstairs to the floor that contained history of science, astronomy and physics, etc.

This is a real find - many of the books that I could use on my MSc were on the shelves in the main area (rather than elsewhere on the stakes) and they also had complete sets of various periodicals dealing with history of science. So this could be a fantastic place to work. The library is even open on a Saturday and Sunday. I was really excited about this and am really looking forward to starting work there at some point.