Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of Cambridge University in England. It comprises five separate libraries:
- the University Library main building (commonly referred to simply as "the UL")
- the Medical Library
- the Betty and Gordon Moore Library (Centre for Mathematical Sciences)
- the Central Science Library (formerly the Scientific Periodicals Library)
- the Squire Law Library.
Cambridge University has 114 libraries. Cambridge University Library, referred to within the University as "the University Library" or just "the UL", is the central research library, which holds over 8 million volumes and, in contrast with the Bodleian or the British Library, many of its books are available on open shelves. It is one of the three legal deposit university libraries in England, therefore it is entitled to request a free copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland. It receives around 80,000 books every year, not counting the donated books. In addition to the University Library and its dependent libraries, every faculty has a specialised library, which, on average, holds from 30,000 to 150,000 books; for example the History Faculty's Seeley Historical Library possess more than 100,000 books. Also, every college has a library as well, partially for the purposes of undergraduate teaching, and the older colleges often possess many early books and manuscripts in a separate library. For example Trinity College's Wren Library has more than 200,000 books printed before 1800, while the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, possesses one of the greatest early medieval European manuscript collections in the World, with over 600 manuscripts. The total number of books owned by the university is about 12 million.
The Library was housed in the university's "Old Schools" near Senate House until it outgrew the space there and a new library was built. The large site on the western edge of Cambridge city centre is now between Robinson College and Memorial Court, Clare College. The current librarian is Anne Jarvis — the first woman to hold the post — who succeeded Peter Fox on 1 April 2009.
Read more about Cambridge University Library: History, Architecture, Legal Deposit Library, Special Collections, Digitisation Project, Staff
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—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
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—Joshua Meyrowitz, U.S. educator, media critic. “The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors,” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, Oxford University Press (1985)
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—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)