Whether you've just arrived or are returning, a big welcome from your University of Cambridge Libraries and Archives!

We are a network of libraries across the University of Cambridge, each unique, and together sharing vast collections and resources across all subjects.

Cambridge University Library is a national research library, world renowned, with public exhibitions and events. Everyone is welcome and students are pre-registered.

Faculty and department libraries are libraries dedicated to your subjects, with copies of the books on your reading list and subject-specialist librarians.

Colleges each have a college library that is open to everyone in that college.

Your blue University of Cambridge card is your library card and your Cambridge login (previously called a Raven login) gives you access to the online resources and services from anywhere.

All University of Cambridge students, researchers and staff have access to exceptional online resources, which can be accessed from anywhere using your Cambridge login.

New e-resources guide

The new e-resources LibGuide helps you discover and access online resources. It includes:

• How to access e-resources
• Databases A-Z
• Help and support
• Tools for your research
• Journals in your subject
• Newspapers – digital archives and current online newspapers 
• Researchers’ toolkit
• Theses and dissertations
• Browser extensions – full access wherever you search if Cambridge Libraries has a subscription.

We will keep this guide updated with new resources. We welcome your feedback: eresources@lib.cam.ac.uk

Connect your AI tool to 8 million academic journal titles in Wiley Scholar Gateway

We are the first institution in the UK to have access to Wiley Scholar Gateway. Setting up a “Connect” account to Wiley Scholar Gateway allows you to link your chosen AI tool to the 8+ million articles published by Wiley. This gives AI tools access to high-quality academic work that isn't typically available in standard open web data.

When used via the “Connect” account, we expect this will improve the quality of the answers and insights offered by AI tools, such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Mistral Vibe. We are offering an initial 700 Cambridge University members access to this service.

To learn more and read the guidelines for use, visit the Researchers' Toolkit. We value your feedback – please tell us what you think of the Wiley Scholar Gateway results in your AI tool, by completing this short Wiley Scholar Gateway Feedback 2026-27 survey.

Cambridge University Library is a national research library and a legal deposit library, and that means we have the right to request a copy of every publication in the UK and Ireland, for people to use now and to preserve for future generations.

We also care for special collections and archives, spanning the globe and human history.

Faculty and department libraries are subject libraries with specialist subject librarians and a full range of subject-specific materials for your course.

College libraries have wide-ranging collections for people within that college.

When you borrow a book, it will automatically renew unless someone else requests it. Find out more in our LibGuide to borrowing books.

All skills courses and sessions are available to every University of Cambridge student and researcher. You can choose as many as you'd like (all free). Some are taught courses and some you can download straight away.

Academic Writing Support from our New Royal Literary Fund Fellow

Whether you’re having an essay crisis, your PhD chapter isn’t quite working for you, or you’d like someone to cast an eye over part of your latest book, the University Library’s Royal Literary Fund Fellow is here to help.

Kaddy Benyon, whose writing career primarily encompasses poetry and script writing for TV, is joining the University Library as Royal Literary Fund Fellow for a period of two years. The Fellow is available to all current university students and staff, whatever their subject or level of study. She offers free, personalised and individual advice on any aspect academic writing in a confidential and friendly environment.

This is the second time the University Library has hosted an Royal Literary Fund Fellow, with undergraduates, postgraduates and PhD students and research staff all benefitting from the service last year. People have particularly praised the sessions for helping them to clarify their argument and giving them a chance to practice explaining their ideas in simple prose.

One PhD student said they "can’t believe all PhD students don’t use this service” and another said they would “go back and tell my department that everyone needs to come to this.”

To book a 50-minute one-to-one meeting either in person at the University Library or online, please email: kaddy.benyon@rlfeducation.org.uk.

University Library video tours

When you arrive

Study spaces

How to find a book

West Hub Library video tour

Tower lift at the University Library

There will be maintenance work on the tower lift at the University Library throughout Michaelmas term. There are steps up to the first floor from the entrance hall. During this period alternative step-free access will be via the staff entrance, which is on the south side of the building (at the back of the building, towards Grange Road.)

Any questions about this or how to access, please contact the Libraries Accessibility Service on disability@lib.cam.ac.uk. 

Need a break? Step into our exhibition Living Water and explore art, poetry, and the fight for clean rivers.

You’ll find the exhibition centre just off the entrance hall in the University Library.

There's also a step-free alternative entrance before you come into the Library (to the right of the main entrance steps.)

On the first floor of the University Library, you can immerse yourself in the photography of Susan Derges, or take a seat in the reading nook and discover a new poem.

Living Water is free and open to all. No booking required. Open six days a week (Monday to Saturday) at the University Library. Open now until 5th December 2026.

Curated by Dr Mark Wormald, this two-part exhibition continues at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Find out more.

New Libraries and Archives website launching soon

The new Libraries and Archives website will launch in mid November.

The new website will replace both lib.cam.ac.uk and libraries.cam.ac.uk sites. (The new website will be on the libraries.cam.ac.uk url when it's made live.)

The new site will be streamlined and user focused, providing a clear guide to what we offer across the libraries. Thanks for your patience – the new website will be live soon!