The medievalist staff of the Department maintain a bibliographical card index, known as 'Bodley Refs.', of references to Bodleian and other Oxford manuscripts. The index is arranged by manuscript shelfmark. It is compiled primarily from the indexes of new books selected for potential inclusion on the open shelves of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room, or for the general interest of readers in the room; and from offprints sent to the Library by authors who reproduce or cite its manuscripts in their publications. We welcome readers to bring further references to Oxford's medieval manuscripts to our attention, and would be very pleased to receive as gifts copies of published works citing them, especially those not published in the UK. Such offprints are filed in box-files, and, like the index cards, may be consulted in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room by asking the member of staff on duty.
The 'Bodley Refs.' card index contains tens of thousands of cards, dating from the 1890s to the present day, while the offprints, newspaper clippings, etc., covering the same period, fill over one hundred box-files.
It is to be hoped that the 'Bodley Refs.' will all eventually be converted to electronic form. These bibliographical references will, in due course, be added under the appropriate shelfmarks in the online catalogue.