There are many catalogues and search engines that you can use to find and locate materials for your assignments, presentation or research. Before your course begins it is worth spending some time exploring some of these resources, and what is available to you in Cambridge.

Critically evaluate the resources you explore or use.

Select some of the links on this page, and try out the resources. As you do, think critically about them. If something does not seem to be relevant to you, ask yourself why; if it is relevant, ask yourself how relevant it is, and for what reasons.

Consider the scope of a resource - the types of publications it includes, how comprehensive it is, the quality of the material there. Assess how easy it is to use and how effective the search facilities are.

This kind of critical approach should be present through all of your study and research, and should help you to become more familiar with any resource you use.

How you search for information and resources in Cambridge depends on what you're looking for, and for what purpose.

You will become familiar with the University of Cambridge's main catalogue, iDiscover, which allows you to search across all the printed and electronic resources in the university - including books, journals, databases, Apollo (the University's repository) and other online content.

There's plenty of information on using iDiscover available here but you'll probably find that, if you've used a library catalogue before, it'll probably seem fairly straightforward to you.

Can't find what you need?

There is a request form you can use to request books, ebooks, journal subscriptions and databases, amongst other things, including DVDs and music scores.

Useful Links

Depending on the kind of information you're looking for and its format, you might also find it useful to start your searches elsewhere. For example:

• the A-Z of online databases: this is a list of all of the online databases that we subscribe to in Cambridge. You'll see that it's really easy to limit the list by subject, or to search for a specific one.
• the A-Z of online journals: this allows you to search specifically for journals which are available online. It's really useful in particular to identify what the coverage (i.e. which volumes) of a journal can be accessed electronically.
• newspapers: you can find a list of the archives and current news sites to which Cambridge subscribes at this link - tip: hovering over the 'i' icon will give you additional information about its scope.
• Janus, the archives and manuscripts catalogue: this is a brilliant resource to help you to locate archival collections in Cambridge, and it includes references to the papers of politicians, scientists, economists, and to medical and healthcare history.
• Apollo, the research repository: this holds the research output of academics and students across the university, and includes many open access resources relating to a wide range of disciplines. There are also other sites you can use to track down theses and dissertations.
• Other university catalogues: not all of the material available to you through the university can be located through online catalogues, and some materials relating to maps, music, and fiction can only be found on card catalogues in the University Library.

It's quite likely that Google will appear somewhere in your personal search strategy for finding resources or literature for your subject or research interest. It goes without saying that as a graduate student your search strategy should probably not start and end with Google, but there are ways in which you can improve the way you search it.

• If you're after a specific file type, add filetype:pdf or filetype:docx to your search string. This might be particularly useful for bringing up grey literature which often is in PDF form.
• If searching only a specific domain would help you, add this to your search string too, in the form of: site:edu or site:gov
• If your search is time specific you can use two full stops to limit your search results e.g. for results between 2005 and 2010, add 2005..2010 to your search string.
• Use operators: a hyphen will exclude the following word, a tilde (~) will search for synonyms too, and quotation marks will look for a specific phrase.

Some excellent advice on using Google Scholar more effectively is available here.

As a graduate student, you will identify your own collection of resources, catalogues and search engines that you routinely use. Those listed above may well be part of it, but here are some other general resources which will be helpful regardless of your subject, and which may take you beyond the vast range of resources held by the University of Cambridge. 

• Library catalogues like Library Hub Discover and WorldCat will allow you to identify materials - especially books and ebooks - that Cambridge does not have. Copac searches over 100 academic libraries across the UK and Ireland (including Oxford and the British Library) while WorldCat has an international scope.
• The journal stores JStor and Project Muse have a huge range of articles and other materials, and are excellent places to search; similarly, Google Scholar can help you to locate and find a very broad range of resources.
• Suncat will help you to identify where journals or serials (in print and online) are available.
• The English Short Title Catalogue lists almost half a million items published between 1473 and 1800, mostly in English, and mostly in the British Isles or North America.

• For archives, try the National Archive and Archives Hub - both for physical and digital archives, of universities, museums, galleries, the media, medicine, industry, business, and more

Resources that are particularly helpful for your subject, or your research interest, will probably be the next and main section of your collection of the things you use. It might be that you're already well aware of the best databases in your subject, but there may still be more to discover.

The first place to look is your subject library and your subject library's guide of resources. 

Here you might find, curated by librarians with expertise in your subject, a list of recommended resources, both from within and beyond Cambridge.