Day 42: The Bodleian “Bod” Library

That picture was taken from the other side of one of the passages into the Bod courtyard. As I exited from reading in the Lower Reserve room, I saw a married couple preparing to take a photograph in the awe inspiring architecture of the old Bodleian library quad. If I were braver, I would have stayed there and taken a picture right behind their professional photographer. Haha.

Because this blog is about the Oxford culture, I will now begin to enlighten you, my dear readers, about how exactly it is.

Yesterday, after I met with my Strategy tutor, the hum of my life changed. It is definitely time to live the "Oxford life". I am only required to be in a tutorial 2 hours a week, 1 hour for each tutor. The rest of the time is yours.

Although that sounds so alluring, I need you to trust me to say that it's not. It's absolutely difficult, especially coming from our school system, to understand the concept of independent studying. The tutors give you a reading list and an essay prompt. Which you read and how you answer the question is always up to you. If that's not enough, the essay prompt isn't exactly a close ended question. It is usually one that can be taken one way or the other. In other words, it is open enough for however you want to answer it, as long as you are prepared and could discuss it with your tutor.

I was at the Bod that day because I was reading one of the books on my reading list that is only available there. The Bod is a reference only library. I was at the old Bod (The new Bod is actually closed for renovations at the moment). You use this search engine called SOLO to look for your books and if says its on the "stack", you need to request it and they are going to deliver it to the reading room you chose. As it happens, the reading room I chose for this time is the Lower Reading Room. I ended up reading a bit there but in all honesty, the Bod aura is not for me. At least, not the aura in the lower reading room. It was massive and…old. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's actually gorgeous. It's just that it makes me feel sleepy and exhausted.

I went back that afternoon, however, and discovered the Upper Reading Room which was more my style. Thus, I have found my place in the Bod library and learned to send my books to the Upper Reserve the next time around.