Browse or search for courses

These twenty-minute sessions are chance to practice searching medical/scientific databases, use referencing software, and have your questions answered about literature searching for your dissertations.

• Nervous or intimidated about visiting the UL for the first time?
• Don’t know where to begin with a Literature search?
• Can never find the books you need on the open shelves?

Book a buddy!

Book this 20 minute slot and we’ll match you with a member of library staff who can show you what you need to know, whether it’s searching the catalogue, using Electronic Legal Deposit, finding open shelf books or something else entirely.

Sign up today! We’ll contact you to find out exactly what you need to know and then we’ll arrange your perfect match with an experienced member of the Reader Services team!

This a trial service running throughout the summer vacation. We will appreciate any feedback that you provide.

The Map Department contains some 1,100,000 maps, both British and foreign, several thousand atlases and other material. This session, based in the Map Room, is designed to give an overview of holdings and guidelines for accessing and using them.

The University Library holds over 9 million physical items and provides access to millions of online resources. In this session an experienced member of UL staff will show you the basics to get you started.

The tour will include:

• A brief introduction to iDiscover - your main tool for locating resources in the UL and other University of Cambridge Libraries
• A tour of the physical spaces including the Main Reading Room and Open bookstacks
• Demonstrations of how to locate the physical items you need and brief explanations of Electronic Legal Deposit and E-Resource access
• We'll show you where the important things are such as toilets, Tea Room, and comfortable areas to work
• We'll answer any questions you may have
• We'll make sure that by the end of the tour you will know where to go to find help

• Are you a new undergrad who is intimidated by the thought of entering the UL?
• Are you a second or third year who has never set foot in the UL and is embarrassed to admit that you don't know what you're doing?
• Have you been struggling on your own and just need a few tips and tricks to get what you need?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then this tour is for you!

Finding the UL intimidating and confusing is perfectly normal. It is also normal for undergraduates to only use the UL for the first time in their third year, so you are definitely not alone!

On this tour a friendly member of our Reader Services team will show you around, explain the UL's unique way of shelving books, explain what Electronic Legal Deposit is and answer any questions you may have. Most importantly we will show you where to go if you find you need help.

Don't suffer in silence! Help is here!

The University of Cambridge has over 100 libraries, with the UL alone housing over 9 million items, and this doesn't include the plethora of electronic items available on and off campus.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and aren't really sure how to search for and access the items on your reading list then this session is for you!

We will cover

• Understanding a reference
• Understanding what kind of material is available , both physical and electronic, and how to access them
• A guided tour of some of our search platforms including iDiscover and the A-Z database index
• A few tips on searching beyond your reading list

The course will be led by members of the University Library's Reference Team who will provide friendly instruction and who will be able to answer any questions you may have.

You own your own research right? Well it depends. In this session we will explore the sometimes very complicated world of copyright and what can happen when you publish your work. We'll also introduce you to concepts such as third party copyright, and how you can use existing licencing tools to maximise the reach of your research as well as using other peoples work to advance your own, but legally.

The Graduate Self-Assessment tool is intended for those in the Humanities & Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities schools. It is the first step in an online module designed to help you to assess your own skill-set, identify target areas for improvement and make decisions about what to do next. The tool is recommended for all first year postgraduates, but will be available for you to return to check on your progress.

Once you have completed the self-assessment exercise a number of options for developing your skills will become available to you, ranging from reading articles to signing up for relevant face-to-face workshops.

We encourage students to take the survey about once a year, but it is particularly useful for those who are just starting their PhD and for those who are just entering the final year of their PhD.

You will need to click here to gain access to the self-assessment tool.

If you already know the basics of Research Data Management (RDM) – for example backing up your work, file storage options - but now need to know more about effective strategies for sharing your data, then this course is for you!

This course gives a brief recap on RDM and then covers managing personal and sensitive data in the context of the new GDPR legislation, why it is a Good Thing to share your data, and how to do this most effectively in terms of describing your data, deciding where to share it, and using licences to control how your data is used by others. You will even get to write your own Data Management Plan (DMP): these help you manage your data throughout a project and after it has ended and are increasingly required as part of a grant or fellowship application. You will also learn about the range of support services available to you within the University for managing your data.

If you are completely new to the concept of research data management then the beginners course is for you.

What would happen to your research data if your lab exploded, or your laptop was stolen, or your cloud storage account was hacked? How could you prevent data loss in these situations? Managing your data effectively is vital to help you do this.

This workshop will introduce the basic principles of Research Data Management (RDM) and how they are relevant throughout the research life cycle.

Intended for those who are new to RDM, this course will firstly explain what RDM is, and then go on to cover basic data back-up and storage options, file sharing tools, and strategies for organising your data, as well as providing guidance on managing personal or sensitive data. You will also learn about the range of support services available to you within the University for managing your data.

If you already have a basic understanding of RDM then the advanced course is probably more appropriate for you to attend.

This session equips participants with all the fundamental skills that they need to build and execute effective search strategies to locate and critically evaluate relevant materials for assignments, literature reviews, projects and other related research activities. The structure of the session with move through the processes of basic keyword generation, constructing search strings, understanding which resources to search, before finishing with developing critical evaluation skills to assess quality and relevance of found items

This session will take place in the Pink Room. If this session is fully booked please join the waiting list - we will move venues if there is demand.

This session will introduce participants to different methods of communicating research before moving on to a discussion around best practice and techniques when preparing a presentation. Participants will be introduced to concepts around good design, accessibility, data presentation, and accessing Creative Commons licenced materials for their work. The session will conclude with an exploration of good delivery techniques with additional advice on what to do if it all goes wrong.

This session will take place in the Pink Room. If this session is fully booked please join the waiting list - we will move venues if there is demand.

This session will help prepare you to begin your literature review. You will learn strategies for searching for relevant material, how to troubleshoot common search problems, and how to stay up to date with new publications in your field.

Please bring a laptop, tablet or other web-enabled devide with you to the session.

This session will develop skills that will help you get the most out of your literature review. From a foundation of effective search strategies, you will learn how to critically appraise academic literature, techniques for getting through sources quickly and evaluating their relevance, engaging with key material and beginning to write your literature review itself, as well as ensuring accuracy in your citations and references.

Please bring a laptop, tablet or other web-enabled device with you to the session.

This session explores why you should share your all research as widely as possible and how you can go about doing so. It will demonstrate the potential that Open Research can have in maximising exposure for your work and how you can track and trace how your research is being shared online.

Please bring your own internet-enabled device to this session.

This session demonstrates the importance of a good online presence for participants from exploring what comes up through a quick Google search all the way through to maintaining profiles on academic networking sites. The legalities of using such sites in the context of publisher and open access copyright compliance is also discussed

This session will take place in the Pink Room. If this session is fully booked please join the waiting list - we will move venues if there is demand.

This session will introduce participants to the wide range of platforms and services that are available to help you manage your online presence as a researcher. We'll look at academic tools like ORCID, Google Scholar and ResearchGate/Academia.edu, as well as an overview of some of the more popular social media platforms. We'll also have discussions around issues such as the risks of sharing research through these platforms and reaching wider audiences. We will also show participants how to flip these tools and use them to access research for their own work too.

This session introduces participants to the concept of research data and all the forms that it can take. It will then look at managing different types of data depending on its type, such as its sensitivity. Different storage methods are discussed as well as best practice approaches to avoid serious data loss during a research project. Effective data management approaches will be explored, as well as how to create a data management plan, before concluding with an overview of useful tools and services

This session will take place in the Pink Room. If this session is fully booked please join the waiting list - we will move venues if there is demand.

A course to take you through conference poster design, with tips and resources to help with the content and presentation in order to ensure you communicate your research effectively. The course will cover where to source good quality, free graphics, how to include references in your poster, and advice about how best to present it at a conference. The session will NOT involve hands-on creation of a poster.

A course specifically for NHS staff. Attendees will learn how to search databases accessed with an Athens login (such as Medline, Embase and Cinahl) effectively and efficiently, to learn how to save searches and references, and to create and maintain a bibliography.

All attendees are required to have an NHS Athens login. University of Cambridge staff and students wanting to learn similar material should book onto the Introduction to Literature Searching (for University) course instead.

A course specifically for University of Cambridge staff and students. Attendees will learn how to search medical/healthcare databases accessed with a Raven login (such as Medline and Embase) effectively and efficiently, to learn how to save searches and references, and to create and maintain a bibliography. This course is delivered at an introductory/refresher level, and assumes you have had no prior training in how to search databases.

All attendees are required to have a Raven login. NHS staff wanting to learn similar material should book onto our 'Getting the Best Results - Improving Your Database Searching' course instead.

How to take the bile out of your bibliography, and ensure that it's not the most time-consuming part of your work. A variety of tools will be showcased: EndNote, EndNoteWeb, Zotero, Mendeley.

There is an increasing emphasis in research on the management and sharing of data. Many funding bodies that support research undertaken at Cambridge require not only open access to any publications based on that research, but also to the data underlying it. This course will help you understand funders’ requirements for management and sharing of research data, and will provide opportunities to create your own data management plan and test out resources that will make the data management process easier.

Before undertaking any piece of primary research it’s important to be aware of as much of the existing literature as possible. A systematic literature review can also be a research end in itself. And it’s not something to be taken lightly. But how can you be sure you’re being as rigorous as necessary? How can you manage the references you find, document the process, and also know when to stop searching?

This session assumes attendees have already had prior introductory training in literature searching. It is a prerequisite that you have attended either Introduction to Literature Searching (if you are a University of Cambridge staff member or student) or Getting the Best Results - Improving Your Database Searching (if you are an NHS staff member). Exceptions will be made if you received similar training from another department or university - please contact us if you have any questions about prerequisites.

One session - four medicine and life science databases - widest coverage for your literature search. PubMed is great, but it doesn't cover all the journals relevant to life sciences and medicine. Embase, Web of Science and Scopus can also be relevant and each covers unique material. Come to this hands-on session to learn how to get the best from each of these "4 tops".

This session is aimed at University of Cambridge staff or students who have already had prior training in database searching. Those who want to attend an introductory session should book onto the Introduction to Literature Searching course, or the Getting the Best Results - Improving Your Database Searching if they are NHS staff.