The University’s strong interest in the history of science, medicine and technology is also reflected its libraries’ holdings. Dating back to the early 17th century, the University has three major collections of scientific material, owing to Sir Thomas Bodley, Elias Ashmole and John Radcliffe. These outstanding collections are preserved in a variety of libraries, mostly notably the Bodleian Library, the Radcliffe Science Library, and the Museum of the History of Science Library.

Throughout the 17th century a number of large donations of medieval science manuscripts and printed books on mathematics and astronomy arrived in the Bodleian (Digby, Laud, Selden, Savile donations). The arrival of the Ashmole collection added subject strengths in alchemy and astrology, and with the Savile collection also in optics, harmonics and pure mathematics.

Collections for the study of the history of medicine were substantially consolidated with the Rawlinson collection of medical manuscripts and the Radcliffe collection, which focused mostly on medicine, anatomy and physiology.

For the modern period, there are exceptional holdings for 19th century history of science. For instance, the Bodleian Library holds the archives of The British Association for the Advancement of Science as well as contemporary scientists. Also of particular note is the recent acquisition of the Marconi collection of papers and instruments. Dating from 1895, this is an unrivalled collection of Marconi artefacts, apparatus and printed material, much of which formed the basis of early wireless communication.

The library of the Museum of the History of Science has strong antiquarian holdings in those sciences most involved with instrumentation, particularly astronomy, geometry, optics, chemistry, and physics (natural or experimental philosophy). It also has unexpected strengths in some other fields, such as zoology, botany, and the medical sciences, and of course a traditional interest in Oxford science and in the history of museums.

Its rarer books include several incunabula, a large quantity of rare early pamphlets and some runs of old scientific periodicals. Antiquarian material predominates, but is supplemented by selected modern reference works and historical monographs, by offprints of historical articles, and by some relevant history of science journals. The Library also manages the Museum's important collections of printed ephemera, prints, photographs, and manuscripts.

Finally, the collection of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine comprises around 7,000 monographs, serials and theses on diverse topics of the history of medicine. Particular strengths include:

• National and local public health administration within the UK
• Hospitals and hospital movements (especially within the UK)
• Infectious diseases including and malaria and anti-malarials
• Tropical medicine
• Pharmacology
• Biography; medical and non-medical

New materials are purchased to maintain diversity, but also to reflect current research interests of members: tropical, colonial (particularly Indian) and military medicine, as well as the history of nursing.

Electronic resources

Oxford University Library Services (OULS) provides access to a growing collection of electronic resources via its resource discovery tool OxLIP+. These range from online databases and CD-ROMs to electronic journals. In addition to subscriptions to major databases, such as Historical Abstracts, Dictionary of National Biography, Web of Knowledge, Cambridge Histories Online, Oxford Reference Online, Blackwell Reference Online, etc. and electronic journals, other major electronic subscriptions relevant to the history of science, technology and medicine include:

• Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
• History of Science, Technology & Medicine (HSTM)
• McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
• Medline
• Scopus

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