Your College Library is a place, a collection, and a service. Our job is to get you what you need to read, and provide you with a place to work in peace and comfort. The library is staffed by a team of dedicated librarians and archivists, and we aim to run the best library in Cambridge. Let us know what you need, and we’ll try to provide it.
The Shakeshaft and Sherlock Libraries are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Library & Archive staff are based in the Shakeshaft Library, and can be found in the office between 8.30 and 5.30, Monday to Friday.
We work closely with our academic colleagues on the Fellowship, and with Faculty and Departmental Librarians, to make sure the books you need are on the shelves and, where possible, also accessible as ebooks. We aim, with a few exceptions, to stock everything on Part 1 reading lists, often in multiple copies for larger subjects. We stock, in a more limited way, books for Parts 2 and 3, and taught MPhils.
The Library is open to everyone in our community – undergraduates, postgraduates, academics, administrative and operational staff. Cambridge is rich in libraries, but we hope you’ll think of the College Library as your home library, and the first place you'll want to go to for your reading and research needs.
For further information, navigate using the options below, or download a PDF copy of our Library Guide.
