To find and access e-books, see the Cambridge e-Books Guide.
The Engineering, West Hub and Moore libraries all have an Electronic Legal Deposit (ELD) machine which will enable you to access materials that publishers have chosen to deposit electronically. These materials can be identified in iDiscover by the appearance of the phrase “Available on designated PCs in the UL and most Faculty and Departmental libraries”. Ask a librarian if you need to locate an ELD machine
The A-Z guide to databases lists over 800 databases you will have access to as a member of the University. If you want to see results for a particular subject, you can set the filter to just see e.g. databases for Engineering.
For general support and guidance with e-Resources, the libraries have an accessing e-Resources page and an e-Resources LibGuide compiled by the University's e-Resources team.
The Library team have curated a list of useful general technology e-Resources for students and researchers in the tabs below. If you're looking for more specialised resources, try our dedicated Engineering Sciences and Computer Science Guides.
Note: The index of resources provided by the Judge Business School Library and Information Service is very useful for subjects relating to industry, manufacturing and business.
Databases search multiple sources to bring back references and abstracts of articles, books, chapters and so on. You can search the literature using keywords and filters, or look for specific resources using known information such as title and author.
You can see if we have online access to articles by clicking "find full text" on a record. If we don't have it, check the online catalogue for a physical copy in the Cambridge Library system. If you still come up blank you might recommend the item for purchase or request it via this Inter Library Loan form.
Some useful resources for finding and accessing information via databases are listed below.
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This link opens in a new windowThe University has access to over 1.2 million eBooks off-campus from a wide variety of publishers and most are available through links in the iDiscover catalogue. More information can be found on the eBooks website.
We are acquiring more eBooks daily, particularly to support students. If you need a book and it is not yet available electronically we can help obtaining it as an ebook if it is available from the publisher.
To recommend an eBook for purchase, please email us or use this Online Form.
A YouTube video explaining how to access and use eBooks can be seen below. A PDF transcript of the video is available, if you prefer to read rather than watch.
For the 21/22 academic year, Cambridge has got 200 Perlego accounts. Since the number is quite restricted, accounts will be handled by the central ebooks@cambridge team. Please remember that titles in Perlego (which number about 300,000 and cover all disciplines) do not appear in iDiscover.
If you find that a book you need to read is not in iDiscover but is on https://www.perlego.com, please write to ebooks@lib.cam.ac.uk and request an account. We will provide instructions about how to access Perlego. Since we have a limited number of accounts, we will only be able to provide temporary access. After a certain period (hopefully no shorter than a fortnight, but this does depend on demand), we will deactivate your account so that it can be used by another reader. If you need Perlego another time, just get in touch with us again.
Some useful resources to find and access ebooks are listed below.
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This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new windowTo search for journals on iDiscover, you can search for article title or journal title in the main search bar, or use the dedicated E-Journal Search functionality.
If you have any issues tracking down the journal or article you need, let us know.
Some useful resources for finding and accessing journals are listed below.
A patent protects your invention and lets you take legal action against anyone who makes, uses, sells or imports your invention without your permission. When patent protection is granted the invention becomes the property of the inventor, which like any other form of property or business asset can be bought, sold, rented or hired. Patents are territorial rights: UK patents will only give the holder rights in the UK and rights to stop others from importing the patented products into the UK.
You can find patents online and learn more about them on the Patents LibGuide website, or via the links below:
Standards gives the assurance of quality and reliability (safety) as well as enables business sustainability through interoperability. Some standards are government-mandated, and others are voluntary. They will also vary by government.
You can find standards online and learn more about them on the Standards LibGuide website. This includes access to:
The Engineering Library has a small print collection of mainly British Standards. Search in iDiscover for the standard title or author (e.g. “British Standards Institution” or “American Society for Testing and Materials”) or ask the library team.
ESDU (Engineering Sciences Data Unit) Reports: Various items are available in print in the Betty and Gordon Moore library reference collection. These items are non-borrowable. For more information see iDiscover (search for ESDU science data), or email moore-library@lib.cam.ac.uk.
If you can't access the Standard you need from any of these sources, please get in touch with the library and we will let you know of any other options available. If you would like to purchase any individual British Standards for your work, we may be able to acquire it at a reduced rate.
To search for theses on iDiscover, you can search for the thesis author or title in the main search bar, or refine your search by using the Advanced Search functionality, selecting Theses as the Materials Type.
If you have any issues tracking down the thesis you need, let us know.
Some useful resources for finding and accessing theses are listed below.
A 'preprint' is an early version of an article prior to the version accepted for publication in a journal.
If you have any issues tracking down the preprint you need, let us know.
Some useful resources for finding and accessing preprints are listed below.
