Studying in the Library

The College Library is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and provides over 90 study spaces across three floors.

The Library is a purpose-built study space for Magdalene students, Fellows and Staff, offering a variety of places to work within an inspiring environment. There is a mix of individual desks, group desks, comfortable seating and window seats. Every desk has an adjustable desk lamp, plug and USB power points, with some spaces also providing wired Ethernet connection points.

The Library is a quiet study space. Please take conversations or phone calls to the social space or outside, or if you have a group assignment, you can book the Group Study Room. Please see below for details.

The Library staff and Porters will monitor the use of the Library to ensure it remains a quiet space, exclusively for Magdalene Members. If you experience any issues with noise or behaviour, particularly out of staff hours, please come and see us at the desk on the Ground Floor or email us at library@magd.cam.ac.uk.

Taking regular breaks and having a space to relax is important, and you can do this in the Rowan Williams Room on the Ground Floor. The space has a sofa, chairs and a kitchenette with an instant boiling/chilled tap for student use. You are welcome to eat here, but please do not take food into the rest of the Library.

The Social Space is intended for taking breaks from studying. Please do not use it as an additional working space, as it should always be available to others. 

The Group Study Room is located on the First Floor and is a bookable study space, for a minimum of three to a maximum of six people working on shared assignments. It is not bookable for online meetings, teaching/supervisions or social/club events.

Please let us know at least one day before if you wish to make a booking by emailing library@magd.cam.ac.uk or speaking to us at the staff desk. We will need to know:

• Date and time period
• Names and College of people attending
• Reason for booking
• Whether you will need the TV/HDMI (only available during staff hours)

Please note that the room is not completely soundproof so please use headphones and speak in lowered voices to prevent disturbance to students nearby.

If non-College members will be attending outside of library staff hours we may require your group to check in and out at the Lodge. 

There are three individual desks (1 per floor) which can be booked by students with accessibility/disability requirements and who have disclosed a Student Support Document to the Library. For more information and the booking link please see our Accessibility and Welfare page.

Any student can use these desks if they have not been booked, although a sign will be placed on them if there is a booking, so please be aware you may be asked to vacate the desk during the booked period.

You are welcome to leave your belongings at the desk during the day but please take any valuable items away with you overnight.

If you would like to leave books/notes etc. in the Library overnight please tidy them into a pile and move them to the centre of the table, or to a ledge nearby, fill out an ‘Items in use’ slip and place this on the pile.

Items left taking up desk spaces will be moved by Library staff in the morning. If there is no ‘Items in use slip’ with them books will be returned and re-shelved and any personal items will be moved to Lost Property. This is to ensure the desk spaces are clear and available to all users at the start of the day.

WiFi is available throughout the building and some desks also have wired network sockets. Please use eduroam for all devices as it is available in all Cambridge University buildings across the city.

To connect to eduroam you will need to create an eduroam token for each device using your raven username (crsid@cam.ac.uk) and password.

For full information and if you have difficulty connecting to eduroam there is help on the UIS website.

There is a printer/copier/scanner available in both the First and Second Floor copier rooms. Instructions for syncing your card with the printers, using them and printing from your own device are attached to the printers.

There are two networked College PCs in the photocopier rooms, and another two College PCs are available on the First Floor.

Additional equipment, such as laptop stands, tablet stands, and laptop docking stations, are available to use in the Library. External disc drives and a portable DVD player are available to borrow from the Library staff office.

Lost property is kept in the Lost Property Box on the ground floor. Any valuable items will be locked in the staff office. If we can identify the owner, we will email you; otherwise, please ask a member of staff if you are concerned that an item has gone missing. We also recommend checking with the Porters, as items may be turned in to them.

If the fire alarm sounds, please exit the Library immediately via the nearest Fire Exit. There are two fire escape stairwells to the rear of the building on each side.

The fire muster point is on the gravel path in the Fellows Garden beyond the large tree.

Refuge point

There are disabled refuge points at the fire escape stairwells to the rear of the building on the first and second floors.

Contact

Please come and see the Library staff at the desk on the ground floor or email us at library@magd.cam.ac.uk if there are any issues.

Out of staff hours (Monday - Friday, 9 am - 5 pm) please ring the Porters Lodge at 01223 332100.