This is the general page for Cambridge resources. We have individual pages for a more in depth look on iDiscover, Online Resources and Reading Lists.
Your Libraries
Most students belong to three libraries during their studies at Cambridge University: College Library, Faculty/Departmental Library and the University Library. Each library has their own rules, opening hours and borrowing rights.
Christ's Library: Our Library aims to provide all books needed for undergraduate Tripos Part I papers, and as many as possible for Part II papers. We are a 24/7 library that offer study space for our members and a book recommendation service. We are on Christ's grounds and located right in the city centre of Cambridge.
Faculty/Departmental Library: Faculty and departmental libraries are designed to accommodate their subject and serve their own faculty or department. They are particularly useful when looking for physical or online resources specific to your subject. These libraries also have subject specific librarians.
University Library: With registration all members of Cambridge University can access and borrow at the University Library. Holding more than 9 million materials including specialized collections, this library is great for further research. The University Library is a copyright library, which means that it receives a copy of every book published in the UK as a legal deposit, either in print or digitally. Core materials can be borrowed or consulted in the University Library but do keep in mind the popularity of some of the materials.
Christ's Library
Below is a poster explaining the system that we use to classify books under subject. You will find the book information when searching iDiscover. You will need to note down this sequence of letters and numbers , known as a classmark, to find your Christ's copy on the library shelves.
PDF image of poster available for download
We have dedicated pages specifically for more in depth information on iDiscover, Online Resources, your Reading Lists and the Book Recommendation process.
Our Library aims to provide all books needed for undergraduate Tripos Part I papers, and as many as possible for Part II papers. Some material may also support postgraduate studies.
If you cannot find a book in our library and there are no copies in other accessible library, you can recommend a book for purchase. Please visit our section on Book Recommendations for relevant information.
Book recommendations are only for physical copies of books. For book recommendations for ebooks please contact the ebooks team. Contact information can be found on the ebooks@cambridge group
Please visit our Online Resources Page dedicated to provided resources for online services throughout all of Cambridge Libraries.
Please have a look at our Wellbeing page.
We have General Interest Collection on the First Floor that includes fiction and non fiction. It is also part of our wellbeing collection on topics suggested by our own College Nurse such as sleeping, mindfulness, good nutrition, anxiety, exam preparation etc.
The university also offers a number of resources and websites for its users such as the University Counselling Service and Student Wellbeing.
The library also has a dedicated service to Disability and Assistive Resources.
Your Raven password, together with your CRSid (your University ID) lets you log in to the University’s computing services such as Wi-Fi, your Cambridge email, Moodle, CamSIS and other online resources protected by Raven authentication.
A service is provided by University Information Services so you can check that your login to the Raven web authentication service is working.
For further information on Accounts and Passwords
iDiscover
iDiscover is the catalogue for searching printed and electronic resources for all Cambridge Libraries. You will be using this extensively during your student life. Please visit our iDiscover page for further information how to best navigate iDiscover
Log in to MY LIBRARY ACCOUNT to manage your loans, requests and renewals. You can also email library staff at library@christs.cam.ac.uk for any help on borrowing and renewals.
For further help have a look at our PDF guide for logging in to your iDiscover account.
The University Library also provides a visual guide on logging and managing your library account.
Your course will specify what Reference Style you should be using during your course. Some subjects have no specific guidelines while others wish for a specific referencing style. Please have a look at he Libguide on referencing styles to find the referencing style of your subject.
Faculty/Departmental libraries may do sessions on your specific referencing style or on referencing management software.
Reference management software will let you download references from catalogues and databases, store pdfs and take notes, keeping everything in the same place and searchable so you can track it down later. Plus, it is all backed up online so that you can access it whichever device you are working on. Use iDiscover to copy the reference to the reference style you want. Please visit our iDiscover page or watch this visual guide.
One of the most useful features is that it can help you to cite references in a Word document and automatically build your bibliography/list of references. You probably won't want to get started with this software until you are a little way into your course and have written a few essays, but the guides below will give you more information if you are interested in finding out more about them now.
Mendeley and Zotero are free. You can also download them or access them online. Youtube Channel of Mendeley.
Endnote Desktop is provided for free by the University on Managed Cluster Service computers, and can be obtained for a personal computer via University Information Services. Endnote Online is free to use. Youtube Channel of Endnote.
My course
Reading Lists Online is a easy way to gain access to your course reading lists by simply using your Raven password for access to the website. The website offers information on the location, availability, different formats of the book/article and , if available, additional videos and digitized chapters.
For further information on how to access Reading lists Online please visit our page on Reading Lists.
We encourage our users to use all the libraries available to them. Your Faculty/Departmental Library may have more subject specific material available for you in print or online. It will also list online resources of interest for your subject and have a subject Librarian for enquiries.
Also Cambridge University has created LibGuides where you can find information per your subject. These are pages created by subject librarians to help you with various tasks, such as using library subject specific resources or doing research.
