
The Bodleian Social Science Library, Oxford (SSL) is the main teaching
social sciences
Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...
lending library
A lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a librar ...
at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. The library supports taught programmes for both
undergraduates and
postgraduates, and houses a dedicated research collection part of which contains
legal deposit material out-housed from the
Bodleian Library. The Social Science Library uses the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
classification scheme.
The library is located in the
Manor Road Building on Manor Road, Oxford. The Manor Road Building was designed by Foster & Partners.
History

The Social Science Library officially opened 1 October 2004, following a period in which subject collections housed within smaller units were amalgamated into a central library site.
The institution was preceded by the Social Studies Libraries; a grouping of three separate libraries:
* Politics, International Relations, and Sociology Library (PIRS)
* Economics Library (formerly the Institute of Economics and Statistics (IES) until 1999)
* Social Policy and Social Work Library (SPSW)
These three libraries were the first to be combined, at the site of the existing Economics Library, between 2002 and 2003. Further integration followed with the Criminology Library and Socio-Legal Studies Library moving to the site in 2004. The collections housed at the International Development Centre (IDS) at
Queen Elizabeth House joined the Social Science Library after its launch, in the summer of 2005. Material from the Slavonic and East European collections, previously kept within the Bodleian Library Slavonic reading room, also moved into the library later that year.
In March 2010 the Social Science Library was renamed the Bodleian Social Science Library. This was as result of the Oxford University Library Services - of which the Social Science Library was a part - changing its name to the Bodleian Libraries.
Subject coverage
Subject coverage includes:
*
Criminology
Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...
*
Economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
*
International Development
International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic development, economic or human development (economics), human development on an international sca ...
*
Politics
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
and
International Relations
International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
*
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
n and
East European Studies
*
Social Policy
Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...
and
Social Work
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...
*
Socio-Legal Studies
*
Sociology
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
References
External links
Social Science Library website
Libraries of the University of Oxford
Social sciences organizations
Economics libraries
Deposit libraries
2004 establishments in England
Libraries established in 2004
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