A much fuller history of the University Library is given in:
Cambridge University Library: a history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Volume 1: From the beginnings to the Copyright Act of Queen Anne, by J.C.T. Oates.
Volume 2: The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, by David McKitterick.
and also in:
Cambridge University Library: the great collections, edited by Peter Fox. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.