OUSFG Library

The OUSFG library is a nomadic collection of books, numbering somewhere between 2000 and 2500. It currently exists in two separate states: the Open Shelves, present at all Library Meetings, and the OUSFG Stacks, currently hosted by Angharad Green.

The library has been wandering homeless, sleeping on people's floors for the last 40 years. It is like the Israelites in this respect. It's probably about time it had a more stable, permanent home (Library Zionism!).

The months leading up to September, 2003 were very important for the library. We had a huge donation of books from Bob Wimhurst (father of Tom Anderson's then-girlfriend, Victoria), and Archie Maskill, already disgruntled with the state of the library, the mis-synchronisation of the library and index, and the choices of what should be stacked and what should be open shelf, embarked on sorting out the 2500 books lying around the house. Duplicates were kept sparingly (leaving an auction pile of around 300) and an actual proper system was implemented. The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction? was consulted extensively during this process. The first time this was done, it was completed in a long day by half-a-dozen people, and many mistakes and inconsistencies were left in the library. It took Archie about 4 months to do this, single-handedly. He was self-employed at the time and, rather stupidly, made barely any money during this period.

We are always keen to improve the library, both for the members (more books, even if they're shite) and for the poor sod who looks after it (less volume, by culling the shite or replacing it with a smaller equivalent). See Library Suggestions.

The Library can be considered to be our Bodleian... sort of.

Resembles the Bod, in that:

• there is currently a separate book stacks and open shelves section;
• it contains an awful lot of very multifarious material, some of it essential, some... not so essential;
• its indexing system is highly arcane, full of lacunae and fully understood, if at all, solely by the OUSFG Elders.

... but you can take books out. So it's far more accurate to say it resembles any other public library. It's also less exclusive than the Bodleian - we let almost anyone join up then borrow.

The Wiki version of the Library Catalogue is now complete.

I have a List Of Books To Donate when I have read them. Any member is welcome to borrow them, just send me an email. Kevin Valentine

The old version of the catalogue can be found at http://www.ousfg.net/library/