The Bodleian Libraries (BODcasts)

Richard Ballam talks about the rich collections of games and pastimes he has recently donated to the Bodleian, the subject of the display Playing with History. Playing with History celebrates Richard Ballam's donation to the Bodleian of his rich and varied collection of games and pastimes. This small selection of items from the wider collection gives us insights into the presentation of history to...

A talk delivered by Andrew Green at the Anybook Oxford Libraries Conference 2015 - Adapting for the Future: Developing Our Professions and Services, 21st July 2015. In the research library of the future the provision of services, many of them new, will eclipse the traditional care of collections -- or at least the care of what is termed 'common collections'. 'Distinctive collections', though, will...

A talk delivered by Jan Wilkinson at the Anybook Oxford Libraries Conference 2015 - Adapting for the Future: Developing Our Professions and Services, 21st July 2015. Previous organisational development (strategy, structure, skills) for the University of Manchester Library has delivered some rewarding, and very necessary, results. Many old challenges have been addressed, and the Library is now enjo...

A talk delivered by Clem Brohier at the Anybook Oxford Libraries Conference 2015 - Adapting for the Future: Developing Our Professions and Services, 21st July 2015. Clem will talk about The National Archives as an organisation, and about the current activities taking place across the archives sector. He will discuss the challenges identified by the sector and how The National Archives is respondin...

A talk delivered by Paul Cavanagh and James Kay at the Anybook Oxford Libraries Conference 2015 - Adapting for the Future: Developing Our Professions and Services, 21st July 2015. Universities face the challenge of providing high quality services which meet the demands of users to provide access to more varied resources in a rapidly changing technological environment. This is balanced against the...

Keynote lecture by Margreta de Grazia, (Emerita Sheli Z. and Burton X. Rosenberg Professor of the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania) for the Marginal Malone conference held in Oxford on June 26th, 2015. Introduction by Tiffany Stern, Professor of Early Modern Drama, Faculty of English, University of Oxford

What do geniuses have in common, across the arts and sciences? And how do we distinguish genius from talent? Andrew Robinson, author of Genius: A Very Short Introduction, considers (a little of) the evidence.

A lunchtime lecture by Julie-Anne Lambert accompanying the exhibition Marks of Genius: Masterpieces from the Collections of the Bodleian Libraries. The John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera is one of the lesser-known collections of the Bodleian. This talk discusses why and how was it formed, what ephemera are, and how can they contribute to our understanding of history.

Lunchtime lecture by Will Poole accompanying the exhibition Marks of Genius: Masterpieces from the Collections of the Bodleian Libraries. Henry Savile (1549-1622) founded at Oxford in 1619 the two Professorships that still bear his name, one in Astronomy, the other in Geometry. He equipped his professors with a library, which they in turn augmented down the centuries, and that library was transfer...

Lunchtime lecture by Richard Mulholland accompanying the exhibition Marks of Genius: Masterpieces from the Collections of the Bodleian Libraries. Outside of the natural sciences, the work of Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826), the pre-eminent eighteenth century natural history painter is little known. However, his botanical and zoological paintings on paper are considered to be among the finest in the wo...

A lunchtime lecture by Clive Hurst accompanying the exhibition Marks of Genius: Masterpieces from the Collections of the Bodleian Libraries. Some dozen items bequeathed to the Bodleian Library by Francis Douce in 1834 feature in Marks of Genius, ranging from medieval manuscripts to a panoramic print of Shakespeare's London, from Mughal paintings to a bible presented to Elizabeth I. Three works are...

'Buying beauty in the Victorian period' Dr Jessica Clark looks at the Victorian beauty industry, and the transition from disapproval of artifice to a celebration of the wonders of cosmetics. Drawing on the John Johnson Collection of ephemera at the Bodleian Library, Dr Clark explains what Victorian Britons considered beautiful and considers some of the products and techniques that women, and men,...

Dana Josephson gives a talk for the Marks of Genius Masterpieces from the Collections of the Bodleian Libraries series.

Bibles and religious literature were an integral part of Canadian society and culture between 1830 and 1900. This period saw increased distribution of bibles and religious texts as part of a larger growth of distribution networks and a Canadian consumer culture. Religious organizations and benevolent societies played an especially important role in shaping the religious book trade in Canada, where...

In this talk Stuart Lee will look at the various texts we may call The Hobbit. Starting with the 1937 edition (on display) he will look at the changes enforced on Tolkien after he had finished The Lord of the Rings and how he coped with these.

Fourth Lunchtime lecture accompanying the exhibition Marks of Genius: Masterpieces from the Collections of the Bodleian Libraries. With Dr Dirk Obbink.

Third Lunchtime lecture accompanying the exhibition Marks of Genius: Masterpieces from the Collections of the Bodleian Libraries. With Mr David Helliwell.

Second in the Marks of Genius series, with Dr Christina Dondi

Professor Michael Suarez gives the first Lyell Lecture of 2015.

Professor Robin Wilson, author of Alice's Adventures in Numberland, gives a talk on the history of studying Mathematics at Oxford, which is as old as the University itself.

Political biographers D R Thorpe and John Campbell speak about their subjects' careers culminating in the role of Chancellor of the University of Oxford. The discussion was chaired by Lord Patten of Barnes.

In this short talk Professor Martin Ceadel, Fellow and Tutor in Politics, New College, Oxford discusses the issue of military conscription and conscientious objection during the first world war.

Dr Adrian Gregory, Fellow and Tutor in History, Pembroke College, Oxford discusses the use of propaganda by all sides during the first world war.

A conversation between Professor Sir Hew Strachan and Professor Margaret MacMillan, chaired by Professor Patricia Clavin.

Marie-Claude Felton, Royal Bank of Canada-Bodleian Visiting Scholar, gives a talk for the Bodleian Library BODcasts series