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Cambridge University Library

 

The Friends of Cambridge University Libraries support the Library and its extraordinary collection of over 8 million items, including an array of Special Collections and over 2 million items accessible on open shelves. Friends fund some of the most crucial activities in the library, securing new acquisitions, conserving and digitising our collections, and supporting our public programme of exhibitions and events for all.

In the last few years alone, donations and subscriptions from the Friends have helped us purchase manuscripts, rare books, journals, newspapers, photographs, and letters and more: all items of historical significance to add to the Library’s world-class collections. Acquisitions range from the Codex Zacynthius to the diaries of writer Florence Image (sister of the painters Stanley and Gilbert Spencer) to a collection of Thom Gunn poems. Digitisation projects supported by the Friends include Coptic papyri, Sanskrit manuscripts, and a large collection of manuscript maps. Friends also contribute towards the conservation of our collections including, most recently, work to preserve a rare and fragile Napoleonic concertina booklet.

If you'd like to find out more about how the Friends support the Library, get in touch.