Many of our collections can be found on our online catalogue ArchiveSearch. ArchiveSearch is not searchable through other University Library catalogues, and thus materials on ArchiveSearch will not appear on iDiscover.
Cambridge University theses produced post-1970 can be searched for on iDiscover. Information on earlier ones is available in the Special Collections Reading Room (visit our Theses, dissertations and prize essays page for further information).
Not all manuscript holdings can be located on ArchiveSearch. The majority of our medieval manuscripts, for example, are only catalogued in the five volumes of the Catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge. The text of this 19th-century printed catalogue can be found online as follows:
Vol.1 Vol.2 Vol.3 Vol.4 Vol.5 Index
Other material is catalogued on external websites such as The National Archives catalogue Discovery and ArchivesHub, while others are only available in paper catalogues and the card catalogue found in the Special Collections Reading Room. If you’re searching for material you believe may be held by the Library but can’t locate on ArchiveSearch, please try these other resources – and when in doubt, don’t hesitate to contact us.
We’re working as quickly as we can to catalogue all our post medieval material onto ArchiveSearch.
The following information may help you in searching our collections:
Arrangement
The Western manuscripts can be broadly divided into four classes:
Two-letter class
The original holdings of the Library’s manuscript department. Mainly, but not wholly, made up of medieval and early modern manuscripts.
Additional class
Items deposited or acquired from the mid-nineteenth century onwards and mostly containing material dating from then until the modern day, though also containing items dating from medieval times onwards.
Named collections
Usually larger collections related to an individual, family or institution, mostly dating from the Victorian period and later.
Doc class
Originally for documents such as title deeds, manorial court records, and accounting papers, but now includes a much wider range of material.
Information on the Library’s Asian & Near and Middle and Eastern collections can be found here.
We also have a set of subject guides offering overviews of our material and a listing of some of our most significant archival collections with links to more detailed information.