Lent Term 2025 at Cambridge University Libraries
Your libraries have you covered as you head into the New Year at Cambridge

Welcome to Lent Term 2025!
In 2025, our resolution is to...
- get you confident exploring and using our electronic collections
- let you know how to access the Seeley Library collections during its temporary move into the West Room at Cambridge University Library
- alert you to new group study spaces at the UL
- enhance your study skills with our selection of training and workshops
- find out about our accessibility services and training sessions
- update you on the non-print material we collect through electronic legal deposit - which has been affected since the British Library cyber attack in 2023
- persuade you to visit the UL, try out The Tea Room, browse our shop, and join our Really Popular Book Club
- Visit our Endless Stories exhibition, featuring ancient manuscripts, before it closes for good on February 22
Electronic collections
As well as Cambridge University Libraries' physical collections, your libraries help you access tens of millions of electronic articles, books, journals, scores and other e-resources at the click of a mouse.
We’re constantly adding to and improving these electronic collections, across every discipline. You’ll find newspapers, books, periodicals and bibliographies, along with digital archives, data sets and collections of primary sources.
Your Faculty and Department library (FDL) is a great place to get help with searching the electronic collections in your subject area.
Maybe you’re looking to search a global apartheid database or get help with your engineering assignment using the Compendex and Inspec databases on Engineering Village.
Whatever your area of study, speak to your librarians, and browse your FDL website and LibGuides to start exploring.
Did you know that our Electronic Collections Management team regularly post tips and announce new resources on their blog?
The ebooks blog similarly offers information and updates about new ebooks, and you can find advice on finding and using this content in the ebooks LibGuide.
Follow @ebookscamb and @ejournalscamb on X (Twitter) so that you never miss an update about new resources to support your work. These accounts also let you know if there are any issues affecting access to these resources and update you as soon as these have been resolved.

Seeley Library opens (temporarily) in the University Library's West Room
The new Seeley Library space in the University Library has opened for the start of Lent Term.
The temporary move into a dedicated and newly designed space within the University Library is to allow for essential work on the Stirling Building to be completed.
The iconic Stirling Building is home to the History Faculty and the Seeley Library, which holds collections for History, Politics & International Studies, Sociology, Land Economy, and Latin American Studies.
The interim Seeley Library has been built in the space that runs alongside the Main Reading Room on the first floor (step-free access is available). This includes what some people may know as the West Room and some additional space.
As is the case now, members of the Seeley Library will have access to all the collections, services, and study spaces (and large tea room!) that the University Library offers too.
The Seeley Library team will continue to staff the Seeley Library, including inductions, workshops and specialist one-to-one appointments, in the new location. There will still be access to all the Seeley Library collections.
The Seeley Library and the University Library are part of the network of University of Cambridge Libraries, all working together to provide the best learning experience.

Helping you to study more comfortably at the University Library
The Main Reading Room has a selection of accessibility equipment and study tools which can be borrowed without needing to speak to staff.
They include ear defenders, coloured page overlays, a trackball mouse, foot stools, back supports, blankets, and more.
Please return any borrowed items to the Main Reading Room at the end of the day.
We also have standing desks in the North Reading Room, and an Assistive Technology Room, which can be booked here.
Four of our desks on the main corridor of the University Library - including two near The Tea Room - have been designated as group study spaces to help you work together with your friends and classmates... and be nearer the Tea Room when you need a break from your screens or books!
Libraries Accessibility Service
The Libraries Accessibility Service works directly with disabled and neurodivergent students.
We can help with any questions about accessing library resources, services and spaces.
Students can book an appointment with us via our online form, or you can get in touch via email at disability@lib.cam.ac.uk .
Cambridge students now have access to audiobooks via Borrowbox. Disabled students can recommend audiobook versions of any books needed for studies or research.
For leisure reading we will usually ask you to join Cambridgeshire public libraries and use their free audiobook services. Please be aware that not all academic literature is available via audiobook.
We will be running training sessions about accessibility features on ebooks and other electronic resources at 11am on Tuesday 4th February and 2.30pm on Wednesday 5th February.
There is no need to sign up, but you can join for the Microsoft Teams session on 4th February and 5th February.

Electronic legal deposit
As a UK Legal Deposit Library, Cambridge University Library along with the five other legal deposit libraries (the British Library, Library of Trinity College Dublin, the Bodleian Libraries, National Library of Scotland, and the National Library of Wales) share the infrastructure for UK electronic legal deposit publications.
At the end of October 2023, the British Library was subject to a major cyber-attack which disrupted access to UK electronic legal deposit publications, including at Cambridge.
A major exercise has now been completed to check the vast core dataset of UK Electronic Legal Deposit.
This has enabled the legal deposit libraries to focus on developing a new interface for accessing content collected prior to October 2023.
The new interface will be an interim solution with limited functionality, but will be both secure and compliant with the very specific access restrictions required by UK statute.
We anticipate that it will be ready for deployment at some point in February 2025. Further details will be communicated in due course.

Study skills
To help make your experience of learning in Cambridge the best it can be, our libraries provide guidance and advice for students, researchers and teaching staff across all the academic disciplines.
There are more than 20 Study Skills guides available to you, providing a one-stop shop of relevant study support and materials for your learning and practice.
We run courses for academic and research skills, from library orientation to referencing help, depositing your thesis to navigating scholarly articles, the training we provide helps you to build your confidence as well as equipping you with essential skills for your course and research.
You can also book one-to-one sessions tailored to your needs, from finding a book to help with a literature search.
To book a one-to-one session email reference@lib.cam.ac.uk or ask your librarian.
All skills courses are available to all University of Cambridge students and researchers.

Be part of our community
What better way to banish the winter blues than to take a break in the UL Tearoom where you can warm up with tea, coffee, hot snacks or slice of cake!
We know how much our users value the Tearoom as a place to meet friends and share ideas, and the friendly team from BaxterStorey can be found serving barista coffee and a daily-changing variety of sandwiches, paninis, baked potatoes, snacks and cake each day we're open. Don't forget to bring your reusable cup to earn rewards through our loyalty card program!
Serving hours in term time are 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday. On Saturdays and outside term, serving ends at 2pm.
You are welcome to use The Tea Room to socialise or work – find it on the first floor of the North Wing and make use of the Tea Room bookshelves - which contain an incredible selection of titles to read over tea and cake!
And if you're looking for some new literary inspiration, The Really Popular Book Club is Cambridge University Libraries' book group. Everyone is welcome to come and discuss a really popular book with the group, library staff, and an expert on the novel. Hosted on Zoom, the book club is completely FREE and open to EVERYONE, people attend from all over the world.
This term we will discuss The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (28 January) and Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (25 February).
Book your place at our Really Popular Book Club
Book your place at our Really Popular Book Club
You'll find also find Book Club texts, along with gifts inspired by our collections and research, in our beautiful Entrance Hall shop.
The year ahead is packed with exciting events and our major (FREE) exhibition on curious medieval cures and medical remedies. Discover what’s in store at the UL, and keep up to date with our calendar of events on our What’s On pages.
We’re also looking forward to visiting fabulous exhibitions put together by all the libraries across the University to highlight their unique collections and focused support.
Meanwhile, you only have until February 22, 2025, to see the UL’s free exhibition Endless Stories: Manuscripts, Knowledge and Translation in the 17th Century.
The exhibition includes exceptionally rare manuscripts from Asia and North Africa, the majority of which are believed to be on show for the very first time.
Through these works, Endless Stories reveals how knowledge travelled thousands of miles, over hundreds of years, during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period.



We're here to help you
Librarians can be your guides to anything you need to know.
Visit any of the libraries or email library@lib.cam.ac.uk
You don't need to know it all now. We're here throughout your time at Cambridge.
We look forward to welcoming you to your libraries in 2025.

Let us know what you would find useful to see in our next termly update.
Email us: stories@lib.cam.ac.uk
Published 21 January 2025
Unless otherwise credited, images are by Alice Boagey @AliceTheCamera for Cambridge University Libraries
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.