Term time

Monday-Friday 8am-1am
Saturday-Sunday 9am-1am

Vacation

Monday-Friday 9am-8pm
Saturday 9am-5pm
Sunday Closed

The college library welcomes all members of Trinity College, be they students, Fellows or staff. Access is via your university card, which you need to swipe on the pad at the main Library entrance. There will always be a member of the Library staff on the front Enquiry Desk to assist you if you run into any difficulties.

Students, Fellows and staff from other colleges cannot use the college library without prior arrangement. Non-members of Trinity who find that the college library holds the only available copy of a text within the University, should email college.library@trin.cam.ac.uk to arrange a visit. In these circumstances, consultation of the text must happen within the library, and borrowing is not permitted.

No: the College Library is open to Trinity members only.

The Basement is open during the week between 9am and 5pm; outside of those times, ask for the Basement key at the Enquiry Desk. The open access part of the Basement holds the majority of the serials collection as well as some monographic series from the modern collections. The closed access part holds older material, special collections and modern manuscripts.

You can bring in bottled water. Other drinks and all foods are not permitted inside the library.

If you’re a member of Trinity, then absolutely! The Wren Library is open to members of College and their guests from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. During term-time, it is open on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. Please make sure your guests are accompanied at all times. 

If your group is going to exceed more than 10 people in total, we would ask that you email wren.library@trin.cam.ac.uk in advance of your visit as extenuating circumstances occasionally mean we are not able to accommodate large groups.

You can use both, keeping in mind that iDiscover gives you information on books held in the University Library, the Faculty and Departmental libraries, and other College libraries too. It also gives you access to all the electronic resources managed centrally by the University Library.

Trinity books are listed on iDiscover: you can search there first and then use the link at the bottom of the record’s page to check availability in the College Library (i.e. to check whether the book is actually on the shelf or it has been borrowed by someone else, and to make sure that the trip to the College library is successful).

VuFind gives you an overview of everything available in Trinity library, including the special collections hosted in the Wren; it is customised and has more powerful searching tools (advanced searches and multiple filters); it also allows you to access your account, renew online, and place recalls. It links to iDiscover in case you don’t find the resources you are looking for, and need to check whether other libraries hold them.

To use a metaphor:

• with iDiscover, you start by fishing in the ocean and then move to a sea closer to home and easier to navigate;
• with VuFind, you start by fishing in the sea (with more sophisticated fishing rods and nets) and, only if you need a very specific, rare and exotic fish (including e-fish!), you move to the ocean.

To view your Trinity library account log in online via VuFind. The Login button is on the top bar, on the right hand side of the screen, between ‘Home’ and ‘Language’.

Firstly, don’t despair! There are plenty of options we can explore to try to enable you to get hold of what you need.

If the book isn’t available because someone already has it on loan, then you can always place a recall as explained in the borrowing and renewals page.

If the book isn’t available because the Library does not hold a copy in its collections, then please let us know by recommending it for purchase. You can do this by filling in this online recommendation form or by emailing college.library@trin.cam.ac.uk or simply by speaking to a member of the Library staff. 

If a book is in print – and often even if it isn’t – we can usually get hold of it very quickly, so don’t be put off from recommending books if you need them urgently!

Finally, it’s always worth checking if the book you need is available elsewhere, either in physical or electronic form. This wouldn’t stop us buying a copy for the college library collections, but it may be the very quickest way for you to get hold of it. You can find out about the availability of other print copies of books across Cambridge, as well as gain access to over 1.5 million e-books via the University’s iDiscover library catalogue.

A few years ago we produced a series of video tutorials, called ‘How to’ guides, to help you with frequently asked questions mostly revolving around borrowing items from the Library, renewing your loans, managing your library account, and searching the catalogue. They are all short screencasts, going through the steps in detail and helping you find your way in our system.

All important library notices will be circulated via email, and occasionally we make announcements in TrInfo, the college’s weekly bulletin email.

Follow our Bluesky account @trincolllibcam.bsky.social for regular updates and library news. We also tweet at @TrinCollLibCam.

It’s also worth keeping your eye on the TV screen in the library foyer; this is updated whenever we have new things to share!

Anyway you feel comfortable. If the Library is open, then there will be a member of staff on the front Enquiry Desk with whom you can discuss anything Library-related (or otherwise…we’re a nice bunch). Alternatively, you can email us at college.library@trin.cam.ac.uk, or, if you’d prefer to remain anonymous, or you’re just in a rush, why not add a comment to our feedback board (see below) located above the water cooler near the main Library entrance?