An Interesting Experience from A Lawyers View of The OBU Library

Located in the magnificent John Henry Brookes building, to the right hand side lies the Oxford Brookes University Library. A centre of studying, learning and acquiring new knowledge from a vast selection of books located on 5 different floors.

As shown in the picture, the library offers short term to long term loans. This comes with a designated room for loans before taking the book and after reading the book. Inside this room there are some computers where one can work,with also a self service centre should one feel they do not need help.

This information centre or bibliotheca has a help zone in case one should get lost or one cannot find the books they are searching for. This help zone comes with friendly staff who are willing to help in searching for a book electronically or manually. 

One can access the library web page through www.brookes.ac.uk/library/ as the picture shows below. 

The web page offers numerous links where one can search for the book or newspaper they are searching for. An insight is offered on the availability of the book. If the book is available, then they distinguish which campus library the book is at, for example some books may only be available at the Headington campus library and not available at the Wheatley campus library. In addition to finding a book the electronic library also assists in whether the book is only available electronically or hard copy. The OBU library web page has a number of quick links such as the reading lists where one can type in their module title and find books related to their module, this is especially helpful for law students due to the large selection of law books.

In regards to locating the law books, one can ask Charlie Lythgoe the law librarian who will be able to assist with any queries whatsoever. Most if not all the law books are located on the second floor of the library towards the computers.

The library is equipped with computers which require your student number and password to log in. This makes it easier for one to study in the library should they not want to leave the quiet atmosphere.

The library uses the Dewey Decimal System which is a proprietary library classification system first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876. This system is used for the numbering of the books, as certain books will come under a certain number for example for books pertaining to law they would come under the number 300. The picture below shows the Dewey system used for numbering the books and aisles to locate the books.

                                                    

In conclusion this library is uniquely different to any other library one has visited due to the ease of accessibility. There are so many ways one can acquire help, and the experience in itself somewhat feels relaxing!