All Cambridge University Libraries courses

This session is designed for anyone who would like to learn more about how to read academic literature. This hour long workshop explores reading techniques, article structures and productive reading, while also providing techniques you can use to tackle your weekly readings.

Learning critical reading skills is a useful way to make better notes from what you have read and can help you to organise and plan what you read. This session will help you to put these skills to good use and become more confident at reading academic literature.

• Nervous or intimidated about visiting the UL for the first time?
• Don’t know where to begin with a Literature search?
• Want to discuss your Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan?

Book a buddy!

Email disability@cam.ac.uk to arrange a session. Tell us what you need help with and we’ll match you with a member of library staff who can show you what you need to know, whether it’s searching the catalogue, using Electronic Legal Deposit, finding open shelf books or something else entirely.

When we asked Master's students what aspect of Cambridge University Libraries they would they have benefited from additional training on, the tips and tricks for using iDiscover (Cambridge’s online catalogue) came out as number one.

This event is aimed at giving new Master’s students some of the tools they need to get the most out of Cambridge University Libraries before starting their courses.

In the first part of this session (around 20 minutes) staff from the University Library’s reference department will give a general introduction to iDiscover, demonstrate some little-known features and give some tips on effective search strategies.

Following on from this there will be some shorter talks from subject specialists in other University Library departments offering advice on working with Rare Books, Music titles, Maps and iDiscover and foreign languages.

Part of the session will be dedicated to answering questions from participants.

The presentations may be recorded to be made available at a later date, but this recording will only include footage of library staff. No video of student participants or their questions will be retained.

Cambridge University Library's Reader Services team are here to help! Book a video or voice call with one of our experienced team members and we can help you to get the most out of our services. These are sessions with staff from the Reader Services team which can be tailored to your needs, whether it's help finding your books or help with a literature search. We'll tell you about how the Library is enabling learning while keeping you safe through the UL's Click and Collect, Scan and Deliver and Book-a-visit services, as well as give you tips on finding resources through iDiscover and on how to access online resources.

When you have booked please email reference@lib.cam.ac.uk with any specific queries you would like to ask, this will help us assign your call to an appropriate member of our team. We will contact you to arrange a call using Microsoft TEAMS.

If you would prefer another date and/or time, please let us know and we can arrange this for you.

The Map Department contains some 1,100,000 maps, both British and foreign, several thousand atlases and other material. This session, based in the Map Room, is designed to give an overview of holdings and guidelines for accessing and using them.

A guided tour through the open stacks and Anderson Room (Music Reading Room) at the University Library. This will provide an overview of the wealth of music materials held here, and how to find them.

• Nervous or intimidated about visiting the UL for the first time?
• Don’t know where to begin with a Literature search?
• Can never find the books you need on the open shelves?
• Want to learn what extra support the UL can offer?

Book a buddy!

Email disability@cam.ac.uk to arrange a session. Tell us what you need help with and we’ll match you with a member of library staff who can show you what you need to know, whether it’s searching the catalogue, using Electronic Legal Deposit, finding open shelf books or something else entirely. You are welcome to attend by yourself or alongside the student that you assist.

The University Library is operating differently during these unprecedented times, but your Reader Services team are still here to assist you. Whether you need specific help, or just want a rundown of our latest services, book a video call with a member of the team today!

Calls are available Monday to Friday from 10.30 - 12.30 and 14.00 - 16.00

To book a call, please email reference@lib.cam.ac.uk with the following information

• Preferred date and time
• A brief description of what you would like to talk about

The University Library holds over 9 million physical items and provides access to millions of online resources. In this session an experienced member of UL staff will show you the basics to get you started.

The tour will include:

• A brief introduction to iDiscover - your main tool for locating resources in the UL and other University of Cambridge Libraries
• A tour of the physical spaces including the Main Reading Room and Open bookstacks
• Demonstrations of how to locate the physical items you need and brief explanations of Electronic Legal Deposit and E-Resource access
• We'll show you where the important things are such as toilets, Tea Room, and comfortable areas to work
• We'll answer any questions you may have
• We'll make sure that by the end of the tour you will know where to go to find help

• Are you a new undergrad who is intimidated by the thought of entering the UL?
• Are you a second or third year who has never set foot in the UL and is embarrassed to admit that you don't know what you're doing?
• Have you been struggling on your own and just need a few tips and tricks to get what you need?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then this tour is for you!

Finding the UL intimidating and confusing is perfectly normal. It is also normal for undergraduates to only use the UL for the first time in their third year, so you are definitely not alone!

On this tour a friendly member of our Reader Services team will show you around, explain the UL's unique way of shelving books, explain what Electronic Legal Deposit is and answer any questions you may have. Most importantly we will show you where to go if you find you need help.

Don't suffer in silence! Help is here!

The University of Cambridge has over 100 libraries, with the UL alone housing over 9 million items, and this doesn't include the plethora of electronic items available on and off campus.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and aren't really sure how to search for and access the items on your reading list then this session is for you!

We will cover

• Understanding a reference
• Understanding what kind of material is available , both physical and electronic, and how to access them
• A guided tour of some of our search platforms including iDiscover and the A-Z database index
• A few tips on searching beyond your reading list

The course will be led by members of the University Library's Reference Team who will provide friendly instruction and who will be able to answer any questions you may have.

Finished your PhD thesis? It’s time to submit.

Unsure of your access level options? Confused about any third-party copyright in your thesis? Then this session is for you.

The final step after completing your thesis is to deposit an electronic copy into the University’s Repository, Apollo. This training session will cover how to ensure you meet all the requirements for submission, how to decide on the access level for your thesis and finally a demonstration of successfully depositing your work using Symplectic Elements.

The module covers the key things you need to know when depositing your electronic thesis to Apollo

• How to ensure you meet all the requirements for submission
• How to decide on the access level for your thesis
• A demonstration of successfully depositing your work using Symplectic Elements.

You will receive the URL for the course in the confirmation email after booking.

This tour of the Divinity Faculty Library is primarily aimed at members of the University who are not Divinity Faculty members, but any member of the Divinity Faculty is welcome too. Each tour will be led by a member of the Divinity Faculty Library team.

We start with an orientation session at the Divinity Faculty (ca. 30 minutes), followed by a tour of the University Library (ca. 30 minutes) for Divinity Faculty members, led by members of the Divinity Faculty Library staff.

A session with Louisa Vickers-Mills (ProQuest) looking at the new interface for the Early English Books Online (EEBO) database. EEBO contains around 17 million pages digitised from nearly 150,000 works printed in the British Isles and North America, as well as elsewhere in the world in the English language, up to 1700. It covers all subject areas, with particularly good representation for literature, theology, history, politics and the arts.

This session will explain how to use EEBO for your research and which features can help you get the best from the content.

Booking not necessary. If you have any questions or can’t make this date, please contact Dr Emily Dourish (ejm25@cam.ac.uk).

Electronic resources in Theology and Religious Studies will give a brief overview of the various e-resources, which are particularly relevant for undergraduate students.

E-resources in Theology and Religious Studies will give a brief overview of the most relevant online resources for undergraduates.

A drop-in session where members of the e-journals and e-books teams will be on hand to help with any questions you may have about these resources.

Fair attribution for technicians through either co-authorship or direct acknowledgement in research publications is a key component of the ‘visibility’ and ‘recognition’ areas of the Technician Commitment, of which the University of Cambridge was a founding signatory in 2017.

However, there is currently no policy or standard practice for acknowledging the role of technicians, equipment and facilities in the University or the wider sector. Technicians experience a great disparity in their recognition and visibility in scholarly outputs.

This interactive workshop, organised by the Biological Sciences Libraries Team, will introduce you to the scholarly communications process as well as tools such as CRediT and ORCID, and facilitate conversation amongst peers.

Fair attribution for technicians through either co-authorship or direct acknowledgement in research publications is a key component of the ‘visibility’ and ‘recognition’ areas of the Technician Commitment, of which the University of Cambridge was a founding signatory in 2017.

However, there is currently no policy or standard practice for acknowledging the role of technicians, equipment and facilities in the University or the wider sector. Technicians experience a great disparity in their recognition and visibility in scholarly outputs.

This interactive workshop, organised by the Biological Sciences Libraries, will introduce you to the scholarly communications process as well as tools such as CRediT and ORCID, and facilitate conversation amongst peers.

Finding secondary literature to inform and support your research is paramount to any higher-level research. This session focuses on the concepts as well as practical issues, to give participants a more comprehensive understanding of the issues and features of literature searching.

Please bring your own wifi-connected device, so that you can look at some of the platforms.

Please note that this session is for Postdoctoral researchers at the University of Cambridge

Academic publishing is currently undergoing rapid transformation across the scholarly disciplines. Based on the move to openness, researchers are exploring new forms of immediate and rapid dissemination through preprint servers and reaching wider audiences through open access books, journals and repositories. But what should this future look like and how can the University support researchers to get us there? This two-hour workshop will explore some the transformation underway in scholarly communication, taking into account potential issues that may arise such as access to funding, research assessment and career progression. Participants will be asked to discuss and advise on how the University can best support research communities to openly disseminate research.

The UL is unique: a national, legal deposit library with an amazing collection of around 8 million items - over two million of which you can browse on our open shelves. If that sounds a bit daunting, why not come on a brief orientation tour to help you find your way around? We’ll even tell you what we keep in the famous Library tower ...

Please note this tour does not cover the University's vast electronic and digital collections: to find out more about using these, please see check for courses on our timetable or ask a member of Library staff for help.

This session will provide an overview of the support and resources available from the Biological Sciences Libraries Team, as well as other useful services from across the University of Cambridge, for undergraduate students taking their Part II year in a Biological Sciences subject. It will also provide an introduction to the various training opportunities on offer from library staff to help students with research projects and/or dissertations.

Please note that some Part II cohorts will have a timetabled induction so be sure to check your course handbooks or other information before booking a place. These sessions are for Part II students based in departments with reduced or no library staffing during Michaelmas Term.

A recording of the content covered in this induction session will be made available on the dedicated Natural Sciences Tripos LibGuide.