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Darwin College Library and Study Centre

Study Centre

The purpose-built Study Centre occupies the narrow site (formerly the Darwin Family kitchen garden) between the Old Granary and the main Silver Street bridge across the Cam. The building was designed to provide members with quiet working space, to house the College Library, and to provide members with computing facilities. Access to the building is by plastic security card available, on payment of a deposit, from the College Accountant.

Working space

The Centre provides working spaces for up to about thirty members at a time. The open-plan design of the interior produces attractively light working space, but the openness also means that members must be considerate and avoid disturbing others while moving around and while working. In addition to keeping the building as a quiet area, members are asked not to eat or drink, while in the Centre.

Library

The library contains a general collection of about ten thousand books, displayed along one curved wall of shelving in the Study Centre. This collection consists of works of reference and a selection of literature, with the aim of helping to stimulate and satisfy members' curiosity and to encourage wide reading. No attempt is made to provide a comprehensive resource for members' specialised research. For that, members will turn to the excellent University Libraries and the specialised libraries of the Departments.

• Finding Books
• Borrowing & Returning Books
• Recommending Books
• Library Support
• Who's Who
• Special Collections
• Borrowing Policy for Non-Darwinians
• Useful links
• Minutes of the Library Committee meetings

Get Involved

The Library strongly encourages members of the College to recommend books for purchase within the Library's general acquisition policy; books can be recommended following the links on the Library.s website. Interested members of the College are also warmly invited to sit on the Library Committee.

DVD Library

It is now possible to reserve and check out DVDs from the DVD Library on-line.
Click on DVDs to reserve or find out more about them. You can borrow up to 2 DVDs at a time, for 5 days. You will receive an email confirming any reservations that you make and the DVDs will then be delivered to your pigeon-hole.
If you are not already a member of the DVD Library you will need to join, by filling in a paper application form and handing it in at the Library office.

Darwin College Library will get real money from Amazon if you use one of the following links whenever you buy books, DVDs, electronic goods or any other purchases online. The cost to you will be the same as if you go to Amazon directly, but Amazon pays us a "referral fee" that helps fund the library. When you use one of these links, everything else will be exactly the same as your regular Amazon usage, including your preferences, wishlist, payment method and delivery address. (They don't pass these details to Darwin - we just get the referral fee).

Either 1) (UK customers) go to amazon.co.uk, with referral fee to Darwin:

Or 2) go to amazon.com (in the USA), with referral fee to Darwin:

You can add this link: http://www.dar.cam.ac.uk/amazon to your bookmarks.

We have made it easier for Darwin members to donate books that the library needs by creating a Library 'Wish List'. To browse and buy books, just follow the Wish List link: http://www.dar.cam.ac.uk/library/wish-list

If you decide to buy the book, it will be delivered directly to the college and will be available for all Darwin members to borrow. All donations are greatly appreciated.