Cambridge University Library

Welcome to the University LibraryReader Services, CUL

Orientation

This presentation should help you:

• Find your way around the UL building

• Learn about the catalogues and classmark system for our printed resources

• Find out about our other facilities and services

About us

• Major research collection: c.8m items

• National, Legal Deposit collection and academic library

• Single-copy collection

• Part of Cambridge library network: college, departmental, faculty libraries

• Some idiosyncrasies!

Catalogues

• Newton online catalogue: c.5 million items – all academic material, plus everything from 1977 onwards

• Supplementary catalogues: non-academic material 1800-1977 – ongoing re-cataloguing project

• Specialist Reading Room catalogues

• Start with www.lib.cam.ac.uk/newton

Finding your way around

Morison Room

Open shelf and closed access material

Open Access: over 2m items depends on physical format and contentarranged by size

Closed Stacks: about 5.5m itemsspecialist, rare, fragile or valuable holdings security and conservation

Open shelf material

• Broadly classified by subject

• Distributed across 23 floors of the Library

Size matters

• We arrange open shelf material according to size to make as much as possible open-access

• Books on each floor are grouped in blocks according to their ‘size letter’: a (very big), b (big), c (standard), or d (small)

• So 200-250.a precedes 200-250.b, which is followed by 200-250.c, and 200-250.d comes at the end

Floor layout

Looking for a Periodical in the Book section (or vice versa) is the most common reason for not finding what you want!

Mind the gap

The catalogue showed ‘Available’ but the book is not on the shelf!

It might be:

• In process of being reshelved

• Being read, or reserved, in any of 900 seats in 7 reading rooms, 23 open floors, 2 photocopying rooms

Solutions

• Find a different edition in the UL’s collection

• Search for another copy in a Cambridge library

• Check to see if there’s an eBook version

• Keep an eye on the catalogue and recall the book if borrowed

Ordering closed-stack items

• Items in the closed stacks have to be ordered

• Fetching time is 30-120 mins – sometimes less

• All reading rooms have order slips (not interchangeable between rooms)

• West Room and Reading Room material can also be ordered via the Newton catalogue: save time by ordering before you come in

Ordering closed-stack items

Books fetched to the West Room must be read there -

books fetched to the Reading Room may be borrowed!

Borrowing

Open-shelf material (including bound periodicals) and items fetched to the Reading Room may be borrowed.

Who can borrow?

• 3rd year Cambridge undergraduates

• Cambridge postgraduate students and researchers

• University officers, Fellows, Ordinands

• Holders of Cambridge MA

IT services

• Digital Resources Area: 64 online PCs with Word, Access, Excel etc.

• Registration required (one-off)

• Printing in the DRA @ 10p/sheet

• Wireless available in Reading Rooms and Tea Room (with Raven password)

IT services

Other services

Photocopying

• Self-service requires DRA account and credit• Imaging Services can offer advice and staffed service

Inter-Library Loans

• Commonwealth Room• £3 charge to university members – international service

Tea Room (and courtyards)

• Meals, snacks, hot and cold drinks• Please, no books!

Regulations

• Please leave bags in locker room (£1 coin)

• Please keep food or drink, including bottled water, for the Tea Room or courtyards

• Mobile phones OK on silent mode. Please don’t talk! (except in Tea Room and courtyards)

• Please don’t use scanners, cameras, MP3 players

• Never mark a book: fine + replacement cost

• Overdue charges - no upper limit

Research Skills Programme

At www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Courses/ you can …

• Find our timetable of subject-based sessions

• Book for hands-on information skills classes

• Request one-to-one training

• Download these slides and other handouts

E-mail us at research-skills@lib.cam.ac.uk

Thanks for coming!

Please let us know what you think …

Hand in your completed evaluation forms at the Tea Room to receive a free cup of tea or coffee