Searching iDiscover

iDiscover is the University-wide library catalogue. Searching iDiscover is one of the easiest ways to find relevant material for your course, as it automatically includes results for both electronic and print resources. iDiscover searches across College libraries, faculty and departmental libraries, and the University Library itself. Search results also include rare books and special collections from across the University.

Girton's holdings in iDiscover

If you are trying to find an item in Girton Library via iDiscover, you can make this easier by selecting 'Girton College' from the dropdown to the right of the search bar, which defaults to 'Cambridge Libraries Collections' (as in the image above). This will only give you results from Girton.

Alternatively, once you have your search results you can apply filters, which allow you to narrow down results by library, date, availability and more. If you are searching iDiscover for a particular item and want to see if Girton has a copy, filtering by library will often be the quickest way to find it.

Girton's records (and those of a few other libraries) can be identified in iDiscover with the orange 'Click here for holdings information', rather than the green 'Available at...' which is standard for other libraries in Cambridge. If you open the record, you will be able to see whether it is a Girton record, as well as the location and classmark of the book.

You can then click on this to be taken to the corresponding record in Heritage. You can also scroll down to the bottom of the record and click on 'View record with availability in Girton College catalogue', which will have the same result. This allows you to check whether the book is available before you make a trip to the Library to find it.

Please be aware that not everything Girton holds will appear in iDiscover! We are steadily working on adding more of our collection to iDiscover, but there are still many older items that will only show up on the Girton-specific Heritage catalogue. If you are looking for a book that is relatively old or rare, it is often worth searching Heritage as well as iDiscover just in case.

Which catalogue do I use - Heritage or iDiscover?

Girton College Library has its own library catalogue, called Heritage. So which catalogue should you use? iDiscover is useful for finding print and electronic resources across all the libraries in the University. However, if you want to find something in Girton Library specifically, we recommend you use Heritage. If you're not sure, you can always search both!

Catalogue	Heritage	iDiscover
Where does it search?	Girton College Library	College libraries (including Girton) Faculty and Departmental Libraries Main University Library (UL) Electronic collections
What can I find there?	Books for Part I of your Tripos, and some of the books for Parts II and III print journals DVDs CDs Girton's rare books and special collections	Ebooks, e-journals, and databases Books and journals for more specialised studies in Parts II and III of your Tripos, as well as Part I Rare books and special collections from elsewhere in the University
What resources are not included?	Electronic resources	Not all of Girton College Library’s holdings will appear on iDiscover (although we are working on it!). If the item you are looking for is relatively old or rare, it may be worth searching Heritage as well as iDiscover.
Does it show whether an item is available or not?	Heritage will tell you whether the book is available, on loan, or missing. If the book is on loan, Heritage will also tell you when it is due back. You can log in to Heritage to reserve the book if you need it sooner. If you need a book that is missing, please get in touch and we will do our best to source a replacement.	Most of the time iDiscover will tell you whether or not an item is available, although it will not tell you when the item is due back if it is on loan. iDiscover will tell you if Girton holds a particular item, but it will not tell you whether it is available. If you open one of Girton's records in iDiscover, you can click on the link under 'Also held by' to be taken to the corresponding record in Heritage, which does show availability.

LibGuides

We couldn't mention iDiscover without also raving to you about LibGuides. These are subject-specific guides which list all sorts of resources that might be relevant to you and your studies. LibGuides are frequently updated, which means that you’ll have access to the most current information in your subject. LibGuides can include:

Printed items (i.e. books and journals)
Ebooks, ejournals and databases
Bibliographies and encyclopaedia
Audio-visual material (i.e. films, podcasts, etc.)
Archives and special collections
Useful websites or web portals
Other helpful information, such as details about your Faculty or Departmental Library and Librarian
Study skills help, such as referencing guides

Browse the Cambridge University LibGuide collection.

Girton College Library also has several subject-specific eGuides which contain similar information, so do look at those as well.

Help within College

Library staff are always happy to provide support and assistance. You can book an appointment with us or ask a question via library@girton.cam.ac.uk.

Library Guides

We have a wide range of guides for College members to use

Find out more