English Literature for Continuing Education: COVID-19

The Continuing Education Library is closed but staff are working on site during limited hours and are available to you by email! If you have any questions, need our help finding digital resources, or just want to chat, please email us library@conted.ox.ac.uk

We are also offering the following remote and non-contact services:

Click and Collect

Scan and Deliver

For latest updates on Rewley House Continuing Education Library please visit our blog. 

New books are appearing on SOLO all the time so if there is something that you can’t find try again on few days, you may be luckier!

We have reinstated our emergency access arrangement with the HathiTrust.

This service enables on-screen read access to 1.5 million in-copyright items in the HathiTrust Digital Library, which have been verified as held in the Bodleian's collection in physical form (in addition to approx 4 million public domain items already available); these materials will be unavailable for Click & Collect. The majority of the collection is in Humanities subjects.

This service is available for University members.

You can access resources directly using your SSO on the HathiTrust website. Or use the links from existing records in SOLO where a digital copy is available via HathiTrust.

VitalSource is allowing students to "rent" up to 7 books for free during COVID19.

Sign up for an account (using your oxford email address) to search for titles.

Whilst libraries are closed in amidst the COVID-19 crisis, here are some tips for finding digital resources and ebooks:

1. Search SOLO. We have 118,000 eJournals and 1.49 million eBooks available for use 24/7. Many publishers have allowed free or improved access to ebooks during this emergency period. A full listing is available on the ebooks LibGuide and is being updated as new resources are added. 
2. Looking for relevant journal articles? Use bibliographical databases. 
3. Check out Databases A-Z for hundreds of databases, mostly full-text source materials, including early printed ebooks. Keep an eye on the New / Trial Databases section of the A-Z page for the most recent resources being made available. LibGuides for your subject can also be useful in highlighting key resources.
4. Google Books 
5. Gutenberg Project: is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks.  
6. Search ORA (Oxford's institutional repository). List of UK HE institutional repositories.
7. If you can’t find a book available as an e-book, then we may be able to purchase one, if it’s available. Complete the book recommendation form.
8. Check out the LibGuide for details of our online newpaper resources.
9. Digital Libraries, e.g. Digital.Bodleian with over 900,000 images of c 16,000 archival and rare books items. Also Europeana, DPLA (US), Gallica (France), DDB (Germany).
10. Box of Broadcasts is a huge archive of off-air recordings from television and radio, which you can access via the Databases A-Z platform.

     

Besides the large collection of online book and article material, there are other resources you can use:

1. Book reviews, for grasping the content of inaccessible books. You can find a selection of these on SOLO (use the Resource type facet on the left-hand menu and select Reviews), and scholarly sites such as H-NET.
2. Publishers’ websites can also sometimes be helpful for more recently published material.
3. Google a book or book chapter in case it is available in another University’s institutional repository or on the social media site of the author.
4. Digitised theses which were later published as books. SOLO will list any digitised Oxford theses. Otherwise try ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (SSO required) and ETHos.
5. Google other items to find extracts, chat, reviews, etc.

This is a growing list of resources and will be updated as new information becomes available. 

Please look after yourselves and stay safe.

Not sure how to cite ebooks and eresources?

• Consult the Ebooks LibGuide for instructions on how to cite ebooks.
• The database Cite Them Right allows you to test how to cite a variety of resources, many of them electronic such as ebooks and websites, according to your preferred citation style.
• This useful handbook covers multiple citation styles and is available as an ebook: The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism by Colin Neville (Open University Press, 2010).

If you’re not sure which citation style to use, check your Faculty or Departmental Handbook, or contact your tutor for advice.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): advice and updates from the University.

Please don't hesitate to contact library staff. We are very busy but we are here to help you in this difficult time. Here is how you can get in touch with us:

Live Chat for general enquiries. Staffed 9am-7pm Monday to Friday and 10am-7pm on weekends.

Email library@conted.ox.ac.uk for general enquiries and when Live Chat is offline.

You can contact your subject librarian with research queries.