MSc in Mathematical Sciences and MMath in Mathematics Handbook (2025-26)

8.1. Libraries

College Library

The main source of borrowed books is your college library. College libraries generally purchase the books which appear in the reading lists for many of the Part C courses. In practice, college libraries also provide a good selection of the books listed as "further reading", and, indeed, a wider selection of background and alternative reading, some of which have gone out of print.

Many college libraries have a number of copies of key books and are usually responsive to requests for new purchases, but they need to be asked.

The Radcliffe Science Library (RSL)

Website: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries/rsl

The Radcliffe Science Library holds mathematics books at graduate and research level. The library is the science part of the Bodleian Library and your University Card will facilitate access.

Information about all Bodleian libraries can be found at https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries, and information about non-Bodleian libraries is available from https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/other-libraries-at-oxford.

The Whitehead Library, Mathematical Institute

Librarian: Ms Cathy Hunt

Email: library@maths.ox.ac.uk

Website: http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/members/library/

The Whitehead Library holds material covering mathematical topics at postgraduate and research level.

Please contact the Librarian, Cathy Hunt, at the above email address, if you wish to consult a book that is relevant for your dissertation and it is only held by the Whitehead Library (and not held in the RSL, your College library, or as an e-book). The book will be sent to the RSL where you can consult it for reference, not borrowing.

Department of Statistics Library

Email: lib@stats.ox.ac.uk

Website: https://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/statistics-library

Subjects covered include statistics, probability, operational research, mathematical genetics, and bioinformatics.

Department of Computer Science Library

Email: library@cs.ox.ac.uk

Subjects covered include formal methods, computer security, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated verification, quantum computation, computational biology.