Your libraries in Easter Term 2023

The University Library is open until 10pm Monday-Friday and until 4:45pm on Saturdays throughout Easter term, including on the Bank Holidays on Monday 01 May and Monday 8 May.

Discover your ideal study spot - choose from quiet Reading Rooms, desks amongst the book stacks, bookable solo or group study rooms with PCs running assistive technology, cosy sofas or acoustic booths.

Need help? Find librarians in the reading rooms, at the helpdesk on the first floor and at the Reader Services Desk in the Entrance Hall.

Refuel! The Tea Room serves drinks, light lunches, snacks and cakes 9am to 3pm. On Saturdays, serving ends at 2pm.

You are also welcome to bring your own food and drinks to the Tea Room, and to use the space to socialise or work. You can buy cold drinks and snacks from the vending machine in the Locker Room.

Some other libraries around the University also have extended opening hours at the moment - check with your Faculty, Department or College library if you are studying there.

Exam and revision tips

If you’re working towards exams this term, the library team at Wolfson College have compiled a top list of tips and resources for everyone to help you with:

• time management
• revision strategies and tools
• wellbeing
• the day of the exam

The Cambridge Student Advice Service also provides resources to support you during and after exams, and you will find more information on managing exam stress on the University Student Support pages and on the Student Minds webpage.

Help is a couple of clicks away...

Need help with referencing?

Confused about plagiarism?

Refer to our online LibGuides at any time, whether you're looking for subject-specific advice, guidance on studying and researching effectively, or if you need some pointers on how to make the most of using the libraries.

Study Skills Catalogue

Your libraries offer in-depth training to support your specific area of study as well as to help you develop transferable skills.

Enrol and explore the Library Study Skills Catalogue in Moodle (raven password required) to find 1-2-1 guidance or a group course. Sessions are face-to-face or online with a trainer, or you can find asynchronous resources to use any time.

Digital resources

More than ever before, your libraries at Cambridge offer online access to an incredible range of digital resources, creating a world-class research environment for many subjects.

This year you have access to new content ranging across the global humanities and social sciences.

Make new discoveries in your subject through reference works, film archives, digitized manuscripts, music scores, business & financial data, early newspapers, and original research reports, and other e-resources.

Funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has enabled us to purchase high-priority, data rich electronic research resources.

The legacy of Dr Mark Kaplanoff, Fellow of Pembroke College, provides further rich and diverse collections to support the study of the history of the United States, with a new emphasis on indigenous North American cultural history, African-American history and colonization.

You'll see a dramatic upgrade in the online data resource for business and economics, both current and historical, thanks to development work coordinated by the the Judge Business School, the Marshall Library of Economics, and the University Library.

Explore our digital shelves in our A-Z of databases, digital archive collections, and primary sources.

For news on the latest digital resources available to you, follow our Electronic Collection Management team on Twitter.

the Engineering Library has gone all out to help you balance your work pattern, with fruit bowls, hide and seek in the library, and trolleys of games - explore more resources and events to support your wellbeing in the Technology Libraries

• West Hub offers quiet revision space with some revision tips, library support and brain food snacks available every Friday between 9:30am-12:30pm in Easter Term
• choose ebooks for the soul from our Wellbeing collections at the UL and the Pendlebury
• immerse yourself in free-build lego stations at the Squire Law Library
• the Judge Business School Information & Library Service Centre has trialled various ergonomic items to improve your study experience, offering laptop stands, a weighted lap blanket, multi-level footrests, foam memory cushions, foot fidget bands, memory foam armrests and a wobble cushion
• the Rosemary Murray Library has an actual nail bar
• enjoy board games and origami in Fitzwilliam College Library
• Wolfson College is offering creative writing drop-in sessions as a creative outlet during revision
• discover wellbeing seed libraries in Cambridge Colleges
• the Physiology, Development and Neuroscience Library offers a break from the study grind with comfy sofas and beanbags, and an invaluable reflection room for getting time away from others to think or to pray

• there's tea for miles - check out your 'home' library for regular tea and sympathy sessions. MMLL have bought in so much PG Tips there's constantly a brew on (other teabags are available).
• and finally, there's Jasper the Cat (if ever there was cause to change your degree to Economics)

Visit our Raymond Briggs exhibition

Need to stretch your legs and take a break from the books? Pop down to the Reader Services Desk in the Entrance Hall to pick up your free ticket for our gorgeous exhibition, on tour from the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, Raymond Briggs: A Retrospective.

It features never-before-seen original illustrations from his studio which reveal his expert draughtsmanship, captivating storytelling and subversive humour.

Explore work from Briggs’s pioneering titles, including The Snowman, Father Christmas (1973), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977) and autobiographical graphic novel Ethel and Ernest (1998). On show are his drawings, hand-lettered typography and page designs from his earliest commissions to his 2004 book The Puddleman, courtesy of Raymond Briggs’s Archive and Penguin Random House.

Upcoming repair works

When this year’s exam period draws to a close, we’ll begin around six months of essential repair work on the roof of the West Room - a staff area where we receive and process items for the libraries and the Library Storage Facility in Ely.

We know the UL is an important place to work during Easter term, and the programme of repairs will start only once the revision period is ending in June.

Additional services that our staff operate from the West Room are Document Delivery and the fetching of items on behalf of library users.

We will need to relocate staff and resources from the West Room whilst the roof is repaired, but these services will be maintained throughout.

It's our aim to make our growing collections available to you in a flexible and accessible way whilst we continue to look after them and maintain our historic building. This means you will see that the use of space in the University Library and our Storage Facility in Ely is continually evolving.

Find details of what the repair work involves and how it may affect you in our service updates.