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Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

 

Guide to libraries & resources for graduate students  & researchers

Contents:

1. A GENERAL GUIDE

2. AVAILABLE LIBRARIES AT CAMBRIDGE

3. BORROWING POLICY ACROSS CAMBRIDGE LIBRARIES

4. REGISTRATION, LIBRARY RULES

5. SUBJECT SPECIALISTS AT THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (UL)

6. ONLINE CATALOGUES OF PRINT AND ONLINE RESOURCES AT CAMBRIDGE

7. USEFUL ONLINE CATALOGUES OUTSIDE CAMBRIDGE

8. USEFUL ONLINE CATALOGUES CHINESE

9. USEFUL ONLINE CATALOGUES JAPANESE

10. ELECTRONIC RESOURCES: ONLINE DATABASES AT CAMBRIDGE

11. INTER-LIBRARY LOANS (ILL)

12. OTHER SERVICES

13. REFERENCE MANAGEMENT TOOLS

14. HOW TO SEARCH FOR BOOK, ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS IN ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND IN ENGLISH

 

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1. A GENERAL GUIDE

‘CamGuide for Master’s’ (Also useful for new PhD students)

https://camguides.lib.cam.ac.uk/masters

Contains among others:

  • software for academic use
  • finding & using resources
  • managing digital presence

 

2. AVAILABLE LIBRARIES AT CAMBRIDGE

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (UL): (West Road) : this is your main research library http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/

Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies Library (FAMES Library): (Sidgwick Avenue) : http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/library

  • Collects mainly secondary resources in English & European languages.
  • Some old Persian, Arabic and Hebrew publications – most of them duplicates in the UL.
  • Modern Hebrew literature in Hebrew
  • DVDs for our film course (mainly Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Hebrew.)

 

Other Cambridge faculty and departmental libraries : you are also entitled to borrow books from them (will need to register with each).

College libraries : usually only college members can borrow. Contact college librarian if you need access to their collection and you are not a member.

 

3. BORROWING POLICY ACROSS CAMBRIDGE LIBRARIES

  • Visit our website for detailed information at: https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/faculty-library/borrowing
  • N.B. Books on loan are renewed automatically at regular intervals. Therefore, you might experience difficulties in getting hold of books you urgently need. It is important that you use the 'REQUEST' option on iDiscover to recall books.
  • Number of books you are allowed to borrow will vary in each library. FAMES Library allows 10 items. Max. 5 DVDs/5 short loans

4. REGISTRATION, LIBRARY RULES

  • UL: For information on how to register and borrowing rules visit page below:

http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/using-library/joining-library/who-can-use-library

  • FAMES: please refer to 'General Library Induction'

5. SUBJECT SPECIALISTS AT THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (UL)

Head: Dr Yan He (chinese@lib.cam.ac.uk).

Head : Dr. Kristin Williams (japanese@lib.cam.ac.uk).

Any enquiries related to the subject, please send an email to: southasian@lib.cam.ac.uk

Head: Yasmin Faghihi (near_eastern@lib.cam.ac.uk).

 

6. ONLINE CATALOGUES OF PRINT AND ONLINE RESOURCES AT CAMBRIDGE

iDiscover (Union catalogue of Cambridge libraries) www.idiscover.cam.ac.uk

  • Searchable in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Persian etc. (N.B. Only those bibliographic records to which authors, titles, publishers have been added by the cataloguer in original language can be searched in original scripts. Therefore transliteration is advised!)
  • You can search for online articles : click on ‘Articles and online resources’ at the top.
  • Select ‘Cambridge Libraries Collections’ at the top for print material and e-books.
  • You can refine your search to a specific library under ‘All Libraries’ drop-down menu OR use ‘Advanced searc

 

7. USEFUL ONLINE CATALOGUES OUTSIDE CAMBRIDGE

WORLDCAT: http://cul.worldcat.org/

  • Union catalogue of contributing libraries worldwide (mainly American libraries). Includes many monographs in their original languages, journal articles, chapters from edited monographs.
  • Search in transliteration or original. Good for Arabic, Persian or Hebrew material.
  • You can locate holding library & request Inter-Library loan via the UL

Library Hub Discover: https://discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk/

  • used to be called COPAC
  • merged online catalogues of major University and National Libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library. It is searchable in Chinese, either in Pinyin transcription or in characters. N.B. Only those bibliographic records to which authors, titles, publishers have been added by the cataloguer in original language can be searched in original scripts.

 

8. USEFUL ONLINE CATALOGUES CHINESE

For various Chinese catalogues go to

and click on ‘Chinese Studies Selected Online Resources’/’Catalogues’

 

9. USEFUL ONLINE CATALOGUES JAPANESE

For various Japanese catalogues go to the UL’s Japanese Dept.’s website at

http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/japanese-collections

OR

FAMES Library website

http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/

and click on ‘Japanese Studies Selected Online Resources’/’Catalogues’.

  • Use CiNii to search UK Libraries (you will have to enter the Library’s ID in ‘Advanced Search. IDs are given on web page OR select UK libraries from the CiNii webpage)
  • UK Japanese Union Catalogue (searchable in transliteration, katakana, or Japanese characters.)

 

10. ELECTRONIC RESOURCES: ONLINE DATABASES AT CAMBRIDGE

The University subscribes to many online databases and e-journals. To see which databases are available in your subject area, go to

  • FAMES Library website http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/library and select relevant ’Selected online resources’ on the right hand side. Contains descriptions of databa

 

11. INTER-LIBRARY LOANS (ILL) : http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/inter-library-loans

UL has an ILL Department

  • Books/journal articles/microfilm/ (English or foreign publications)
  • Order them in UL/ILL Dept. £5

 

12. OTHER SERVICES

  • DS-Print :A multi-function printer/copier/scanner is available in the IT room. The printer is networked and print jobs can be submitted to it from  students' laptops if laptop is configured (or use USB stick). Once your laptop is set up for accessing DS-print service,  you can also send print jobs to the machines of any Faculties, Departments, or colleges if they are on the DS-Print network. For instructions and list of Cambridge libraries on DS-print network : http://www.ucs.cam.ac.uk/desktop-services/ds-print

Graduate students of FAMES receive £50 worth of print credit each year  which they can use in FAMES Library only.

  • Wireless network: : There are two main wireless internet facilities available : ‘UniOfCam’ and ‘Eduroam’. Current staff and students may log on to the UniOfCam wireless network either by using their Raven ID and password.  Eduroam, if configured on their laptop. For instructions on how to set up the service see: http://www.ucs.cam.ac.uk/wireless + on the wall in IT room.
  • 24 hour access: available for PhD students ONLY. Attending Health & Safety Induction is essential beforehand. Contact Francoise Simmons (fs285@cam.ac.uk) for more details.
  • Fetching books from the University Library (UL): Books from the UL can be fetched on request on the same day. N.B. fetched books can only be used in the Library
  • MOODLE: we can upload chapters onto the Library’s Moodle site for larger Mphil classes upon request.

 

13. REFERENCE MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Free 

1.) Zotero : https://www.zotero.org/

Excellent tool. Free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, cite, and share your research sources.

To purchase

2.) Mendeley

3.) EndNote

 

14. HOW TO SEARCH FOR MATERIAL IN ORIGINAL SCRIPT & IN ENGLISH