Whether you are in self-isolation or not, these are not the easiest of times. The Library has implemented a series of services and resources to help you cope with the unprecedented demands of your life in College.

Core Services (Monday-Friday)

If you are in self-isolation and need items from the Library, the following services are available:

• • Book Delivery: please make a list of the books you require from the College Library, using the catalogue: http://lib-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk to find the shelfmarks – these will usually begin LL or RR. Please then email this list to college.library@trin.cam.ac.uk, including where you are in College so we know where to deliver them to. We can be flexible with the 10-book allowance, so don’t worry if you need more. You can keep books until you come out of isolation, and no fines will be charged.

• • Book Collection by a friend/buddy system: a set of books may be collected from the Library on your behalf by a friend or buddy. Please email college.library@trin.cam.ac.uk with the name of the person collecting so we know you have authorised this.

• • Scan and Deliver: you can order scans from the UL and faculty libraries here: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/scan. There is no charge for this service, and they aim to deliver within 48 hours (excluding weekends). If you need something urgently that is in the College Library collections, please email college.library@trin.cam.ac.uk and we’ll try to do it as quickly as we can for you. If something in the University-wide catalogue (https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/) shows as being e-legal deposit (that means there is an electronic rather than a print copy in the UL) you can order a print-out from it for £2 via the same scanning link as above.
  • Printing: if you need a document printing, please email the file to college.library@trin.cam.ac.uk and we will print it for you here, and deliver it to you.

A note on weekend services: the Library is manned by a single supervisor at the weekend so deliveries won’t be possible. If you need something at the weekend, please email the Sub-Librarian, Steven Archer (steven.archer@trin.cam.ac.uk) and we’ll try to help.

Additional resources

Although the Library’s primary purpose is to provide materials for study, we would also like to encourage you to make use of all of our resources. You may like to explore some of our amazing treasures held in the Wren through our Digital Library or enjoy some classical music through our Naxos subscription.

You might also consider reading for pleasure: we have acquired a substantial number of books and created a new collection, available in the Catalogue room. Find all the new titles in our catalogue by putting CR Fiction and CR Non-fiction in the classmark field.

We’ve also got a huge collection of arthouse films and European cinema, and borrowable DVD drives, so they might provide some entertainment! See our catalogue for a list of films (classmark beginning with LL 900 and ending with /DVD).

If you feel you need a bit of support, please browse our recently re-vamped well-being collection; all books can be borrowed, and suggestions for new titles are always welcome.

We have bought a series of board games for you to borrow (and yes, the list does include Pandemic!). From Exploding Kittens to Bananagrams, Camel Up, Catan and lots more, we’ve got it pretty much covered. Get together with your household, or try one of the single-player games and have some fun!

There are now also six jigsaw puzzles on the shelves next to the board games, featuring beautiful images from the Wren Library collections. The wooden Wentworth ones are cut in irregular shaped pieces and “whimsies”. Search for “puzzles” in our catalogue for a full list and description. Puzzle mats are also available to borrow from the Enquiry Desk.

There is a mindfulness colouring booklet you can download in two parts: Mindfulness colouring booklet (images 1-5) and Mindfulness colouring booklet (images 6-10) . You can request for these images to be printed out for you in the Library, and we can provide a set of coloured pencils to accompany them.

External links and suggestions

The University’s wellbeing page for students has a plethora of resources on mindfulness, resilience, coping with anxiety, and more.

If you are into games and brainteasers, the following links might come in handy:

• https://www.pcgamesn.com/online-games
• https://www.braingle.com/
• https://solitaired.com/
• https://sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/05/26/brain-games-and-teasers-top-50/
• https://www.thegamer.com/popular-board-games-play-online/

A rich collection of audiobooks is available for free at https://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks.

Contacting the library

We are always ready and able to answer your email queries at college.library@trin.cam.ac.uk.

There is a live chat service available Mon-Fri 9am-5pm via a link in the header of the catalogue.

Our Twitter feed and Facebook page mostly feature beautiful photos from our collections, light relief, and resources for mindfulness and mental relaxation; they are monitored daily, and we are happy to re-direct queries received through those channels as well.