Outreach@CSL

The CSL is very pleased to be hosting an outreach event on Monday 4th Feb.

The event will require the use of the 2nd floor and therefore after 6pm this will be closed to readers. You will be able to use the area and the DRA room until 6 after which you will need to move to the 1st floor, which will remain open as normal.

The ground floor toilets will be open for the evening.

Filming at the CSL

As part of an outreach event, taking place in February, the library will be playing host to a film crew on Thursday evening this week (31st Jan.).

This will mean that from 6pm onwards the 2nd floor area will be closed to all readers.

Readers working in the library will be able to use the area, the materials shelved there and IT area until 6pm, after which they will have to move to the 1st floor area – which will remain open as usual.

The toilets on the ground floor will be open throughout the evening.

Apologies for any inconvenience this will cause.

Simon Goose

Library manager - CSL

29th January 2013

Vacation borrowing

Vacation borrowing is now in operation. All books borrowed from today will be due back 16th January 2013

This service is provided for undergraduate students only.

Trial access has been set up to the SPIE Digital Library

Trial access has been set up to the SPIE Digital Library by the Journal Co-ordination Scheme (in conjunction with ebooks@cambridge) and will run until 14th June 2012.

The SPIE Digital Library includes more than 310,000 conference proceedings, peer-reviewed journal articles and ebooks from the areas of astronomy, biophotonics, nanotechnology, sensors, lasers, electro-optics, communications, imaging, and more. SPIE is a not-for-profit educational society with over 17,000 members worldwide.

Details of the trial and links to content are available on the eresources etc. blog.

Vacation borrowing 2011

Vacation borrowing for all undergraduates is now in operation. Undergraduates can borrow books over the Christmas vacation period until 20th January 2012

CSL Inspection week 5th - 9th September 2011

The Library will be closed for the above dates. There will be no access to the library for any reason during this period.

Books, currently on loan, should be returned when we re-open on the 12th of September - readers should not attempt to return them during the closed period or leave them outside the library under any circumstances.


Inter-library loan requests can be made at the main University library. Readers wishing to make use of the DRA facility should also do so at the UL.

THE BIG BOOK VISITS THE BIG LIBRARY: 19-21 May 2011

Already home to more than seven million books, Cambridge University Library will host one of the world's biggest books for three days this month. Visitors to the Library can let their imagination run wild with a huge 2.2 metre high, walk-in book, placed at the entrance to the building as part of an innovative art installation. The Big Book, entitled Imagine, is a leather-bound wooden sculpture that invites the 'reader' to step inside and write their own individual answer to the question: "What do you imagine?", adding to the responses of nearly 2000 people of all ages who have contributed in 57 different languages.

The artist Diana Bell, and sponsors Cambridge University Press and the University Library, invite absolutely everybody to come along and write in the Big Book, which will be outside the front entrance to the University Library, on West Road, from 10am-7pm Thursday 19th and Friday 20th May, and then 10am-5pm on Saturday 21st May.

Diana will be on hand to answer any questions and encourage everyone to be part of the project, and is particularly keen for contributions from mathematicians and scientists, asking "are we the only animal that has imagination? Why do we have imaginary numbers?"

After the visit, contributors can view their page, and others, at imaginethebigbook.com

For more information, visit www.lib.cam.ac.uk or email art@lib.cam.ac.uk

IMAGINE. PARTICIPATE. CONTRIBUTE.