Calling all river enthusiasts 🛶 As part of Living Water: Poetry, Art and the Fight for Clean Rivers, join us for two evenings of short films exploring rivers, mythology, ecology and the future of our waterways. 🐟 📅28 May & 25 June 🔗More info and to book: https://loom.ly/QMtGQTI

Our copy of Audubon’s Birds of America (1827-38) was recently photographed in our Imaging Lab. Printed in double elephant folio format (the largest paper available at the time) each volume is a metre tall. We subscribed from 1828, following Audubon’s visit to Cambridge that year. Tab.a.3

There's still time to apply for this role!

Hedge mustard flowering in the no-mow areas outside @theul.bsky.social and bringing my informal list of wildflowers for the site up to 101. 💚 #WildflowerHour

Industrial action at the University of Cambridge is taking place on Wed, Thurs & Fri this week (13, 14, 15 May). We aim to maintain services during the strikes and minimise disruption to study wherever possible, however changes may be necessary at short notice. More info: https://loom.ly/JAHIoXk.

Enjoying Colyer & Hammond’s ‘Flies of the British Isles (1951) for its retro fly-catching in full suit and tie, with pipe. I’m the first person to borrow the copy from @theul.bsky.social. #Diptera

Today we celebrate 100 years of artist Aubrey Williams (1926–1990). While researching Williams in our Royal Commonwealth Collections, we were delighted to come across a postcard invitation to his exhibition opening at the Commonwealth Institute on 5 June 1985. #AubreyWilliamsCentenary

📝 The Research Skills Training Programme from University of Cambridge Libraries and Archives is open for bookings! 👋 Designed primarily for PhD students and researchers, the sessions are open to all Cambridge staff and students. 🔎Learn more and book: https://loom.ly/RjU6dj4

Happy 100th birthday, Sir David Attenborough! Sir David wrote the introduction to accompany one of our most extraordinary books, Hortus sanitatis (1491), in the @camdiglib.bsky.social https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-00003-A-00001-00008-00037/1

Join us at Barnwell Library for a free poetry workshop inspired by our latest exhibition, Living Water: Poetry, Art and the Fight for Clean Rivers. Sat 9 May 2026 3:30-5pm Book: https://tinyurl.com/3ck9hh2c In partnership with WildFish, Cambridgeshire Libraries & University of Cambridge PACE.

Coming up at Cambridge University Library! 📚 26 May - The Really Popular Book Club: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh 🎬 28 May - Rivers of Film Screening (Part One) ✍️ 6 June - Introduction to Poetry Writing 🌙 18 June - Library Late Find out more: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/whats/events

Our Dye Garden contains traditional dye plants once used in manuscript painting 🌱🎨 These madder plants arrived in gloriously sustainable packaging, nestled in raw wool. We've put the leftover wool in our cherry trees for birds to collect as nesting material. #CULConservation

Our crocheted labware make excellent study companions: they're bright, cheerful and, most importantly, completely silent! Find them in our Wellbeing area and Assistive Resources section. #ChemAtCam

✍️ Poetry writing for beginners! Led by Yvonne Battle-Felton, this introductory workshop is perfect if you’re new to writing poetry. 📅Sat 6 June ⏰10-11:30am 🎟️£10 I 18+ 📍Cambridge University Library https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/whats/introduction-poetry-writing

We’re open as usual today, Monday 4 May. 9am to 9.45pm. This includes our marvelous exhibition, Living Water. As well as access to the exhibition centre, you can also view the artwork displayed in our corridors, which is all by Susan Derges.

🌊 This Bank Holiday, dive into Living Water, an exhibition at Cambridge University Library where art, poetry, rivers and fishing come together. No need to book – just drop in and immerse yourself. More information and opening times: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/livingwater

We’re hiring! We are looking for an Open Access Service Manager to join our University of Cambridge Libraries and Archives team. Apply before 17 May: https://www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/open-access-service-manager-ve49470

Nothing like a Mary Anning letter at the @theul.bsky.social @theulspeccoll.bsky.social to close off a sunny #FossilFriday.

We’re open as usual over the May Bank Holiday: Saturday 2 May: 9am to 4:45pm Sunday 3 May: Closed Monday 4 May: 9am to 9.45pm If you need a break from all the hard work, why not pop into our exhibition, Living Water? No need to book, just drop in!

Our Black British Voices x Black British Collections Community Panel recently held its first meet-up in Cambridge. The project is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. To follow the project's progress, please sign up to the project’s newsletter: https://loom.ly/k95e7Lo.

A spring posy to celebrate the first day of May! Don’t forget, we’re open as usual over the Bank Holiday weekend if you need us: Saturday 2 May: 9am to 4:45pm Sunday 3 May: Closed Monday 4 May: 9am to 9.45pm Image of a May Day posy: Eb.5.17

Recently, we were pleased to show a group of visitors items from our Argentine collections. This was part of an event organised by @clascam.bsky.social, marking the 50th anniversary earlier this year of the coup that overthrew Argentine president Isabel Perón.

@theul.bsky.social looking wonderful on a beautiful spring afternoon.

A pleasure and a privilege to see this copy of the first edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species today, held @theul.bsky.social, and complete with a letter from his son Leonhard Darwin. All connected with on going work on the AI for cultural heritage project (ArCH). www.lib.cam.ac.uk/arch.

Liz Smith & Mike Hawkins from @theul.bsky.social share the incredible knowledge and legacy data extracted via the Darwin Correspondence Project, and how it’s being harvested, used, and repurposed. #BHLDay2026 🧪🌱📖

A perfect day in Oxford for @theul.bsky.social Librarian and entomologist Francis Jenkinson, 20 May 1901. Two hours looking at #Diptera at @morethanadodo.bsky.social, then a serendipitous encounter with the Duke of Devonshire’s Shakespeare First Folio at @bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

The UL has a new Queen Bee! 👑🐝 Her Royal Highness Queen Amber is settling into her new home very nicely. Long may she reign over the UL's front lawn. 🍯 Amber is marked with a blue dot. Can you spot her?

Industrial action at the University of Cambridge is taking place this week on Thurs 30 April & Fri 1 May. We aim to maintain services at the UL during the strikes and minimise disruption to study where possible. 🔗All the latest news: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/using-library/library-service-updates

Welcome to Easter Term at the University of Cambridge. Your libraries have everything you need to navigate the busy weeks ahead: 📖 a huge variety of study spaces 📖 skills sessions 📖 one-to-one support 🔎https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/stories/spring-has-sprung-easter-term-your-libraries-your-side

Join us tonight!

Springbeauty, fallen Cherry blossom, Bulbous buttercups and Stickyweed outside @theul.bsky.social. #WildflowerHour

Cambridge University Libraries & @bodleian.ox.ac.uk, with support from CILIP & @librariesconnected.org.uk, have published a review showcasing the value of public libraries across the UK: https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006261431330

🚚 We’re hiring! We are looking for a full-time Building Services Assistant (Van Driver) to join our Facilities Management team at Cambridge University Library. Apply before 4 May: https://www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/building-services-assistant-van-driver-ve49420

The Conservation Team has had a busy couple of weeks in the Dye Garden! 🌱Weeding between the Madder and Crocus 🌱Raking, hoeing and sowing 🌱Transplanting the Woad, Dyer's Chamomile, Calendula, and Cornflowers into different beds. #CambridgeUniversityLibrary #CULConservation

St George and the dragon 🐲 They appear in a beautifully decorated Book of Hours (MS Ii.6.2) at Cambridge University Library. This devotional book was produced in Flanders in the late fourteenth century. #StGeorgesDay

Dr Frederick (Fred) Ratcliffe, University Librarian (1980–94), has died aged 98. He oversaw major growth in Cambridge’s Special Collections and was one of the founders of @rluk.ac.uk. Image: portrait of Dr Ratcliffe, on display in #CambridgeUniversityLibrary

Industrial action at the University of Cambridge is taking place today, Wed 22 April. We’re pleased to say the UL is open today, and we aim to keep services running and minimise disruption. 🔗All the latest news: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/using-library/library-service-updates

Charlotte Brontë was born #OnThisDay in 1816. This video features Charlotte's own copy of the Book of Common Prayer and Psalms. It was a gift from Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father’s curate and the man she would later marry. Collection items used in this video: Rit.d.775.1 XIX.58.42 Mm.23.46

We’re pleased to say the University Library is open today, and we aim to keep services running and minimise disruption. As things may change at short notice, we recommend checking our latest updates before travelling: www.lib.cam.ac.uk/using-librar...

Industrial action at the University Library is scheduled for: Tues 21st April Wed 22nd April Thurs 30th April Fri 1st May We aim to maintain services during strikes and minimise disruption, but some last minute changes may occur. Stay updated: www.lib.cam.ac.uk/using-librar... ⬇️

Quick peek at the @theul.bsky.social bees today. Looking good and ready for Spring.

Pleased to stumble over this - invitation to lunch @pembroke1347.bsky.social, my own college, following official opening of Giles Gilbert Scott’s new building for @theul.bsky.social. I was actually looking for something else - info on 1929 architectural model of the building which we still have.

Gorgeous first visit to @lichfieldcathedral.bsky.social today in bright sunshine. The feet belong to John Hacket (d. 1670), Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry and donor of some quite nice books to @theul.bsky.social.

A perfect day @magogdown.bsky.social to admire swathes of cowslips and spot @theul.bsky.social #SpringWatch #CambridgeUniversityLibrary

Anyone working in history of comedy/satire, television, modern British politics - there's a fully funded PhD to research the Spitting Image archive @theul.bsky.social, with supervision at Exeter Uni. All disciplines considered, pls do share widely. www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

Introducing Ian Dubrowsky, the 2026 WongAvery Visiting Scholar 📚 Ian, a doctoral student from UC San Diego, is here to research our Chinese Collections as part of the WongAvery Visiting Scholar Exchange programme. https://loom.ly/hwdVy9s

Today, we took part in the launch of the Libraries Alliance at The British Academy in London. Celebrating ‘Libraries Through Life’, the Alliance brings together the library organisations that touch every aspect of people’s lives. 🔎Find out more: https://loom.ly/NkgReFY

This month's Really Popular Book Club choice is The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. Join us to discuss the novel with our special guest, historian, author and broadcaster Amy Boyington. 📅Tuesday 28 April 2026 ⏰7pm to 8pm 📍 Hosted online using Zoom Meetings. 🎟️ https://loom.ly/WKRmGBM

Such a treat to see this rare collection of pre-1910 British women's suffrage posters up close at @theul.bsky.social this week. This is the top half of a gigantic poster using French revolutionary archetypes to accuse the Liberal prime minister H.H. Asquith of hypocrisy. J'accuse, indeed.

Fantastic PhD studentship opportunity - Spitting Image: political satire in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries. Working across @exeter.ac.uk and @theul.bsky.social in partnership with the @camglamresearch.bsky.social and drawing on the Roger Law archive. #PhDsky