Cambridge University Library is one of the oldest institutions in the University of Cambridge, and for more than 600 years it has been central to the support of teaching and research at Cambridge, and a major resource for scholars around the world. It is one of the world's most important research Libraries.

剑桥图书馆是剑桥大学历史上最为悠久的机构之一，在长达600年的时间里，它都是剑桥大学教学和科研的核心，是世界各地的学者们求知的宝地。同时，它也是世界上最重要的科研图书馆之一。

Though the library enjoys a history of more than 600 years, in the early days, most of the collections mainly depended on donations and legacies. The library began to purchase books only in 1617, and it began its claim on books provided by publishers since 1662. In 1709，the King promulgated the Copyright Act which announced that all the books published in the country should turn in a copy to the Cambridge University Library, and the amount of the collections soared.

尽管有着600余年的历史，其早期的馆藏几乎完全靠捐赠或遗赠。图书馆从1617年开始采购图书，1662年开始收藏出版商呈缴的样本。1709年英国颁布版权法，正式规定凡本国出版的图书都要免费缴送该馆，从而使馆藏迅速增加。

On just over 100 miles of shelving, it houses around 7,000,000 printed volumes, 150,000 manuscript items, about a million maps and 400,000 musical items, as well as providing access to tens of thousands of electronic journals and databases.

在仅100余米的书架上,就摆放着大约700万册图书，15万册手抄本，100万张地图，40万份音乐剧本，还有成千上万的电子期刊和数据库。

Since 1710 the Library has been a legal deposit library, entitled to claim a copy of every book and periodical published in Great Britain and Ireland. Of all the libraries in Europe, the University Library has the largest collection of material on open access, with two million volumes on open shelves and immediately accessible to users.

自1710年来，剑桥的图书馆就是国家的法定书库之一，所有在英国或爱尔兰出版的图书或杂志都必须免费送缴该馆一份。欧洲所有的图书馆中，剑桥图书馆的开放存取材料是最多的，大约有200万册图书都属于开放性的资料，供读者随时查阅。

The Library's special collections include thousands of medieval manuscripts such as the 5th-century Gospel text known as Codex Bezae; 4,500 incunabula including the Gutenberg Bible and a hand-coloured copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle、papers of scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Lord Kelvin and Lord Rutherford; papers of literary and political figures including Lord Acton, Lord Randolph. Churchill, Sir Robert Walpole, Stanley Baldwin, Arthur Schnitzler and Stefan Heym; business archives of Jardine Matheson & Company and Vickers plc; the collections of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the Royal Commonwealth Society, and the British and Foreign Bible Society.

剑桥图书馆的特别典藏中有上千份中世纪的手稿，如公元5世纪的伯撒抄本《福音书》；4500余册古本，其中包括《古腾堡圣经》，手绘本《纽伦堡编年史》；多位科学家如牛顿、达尔文、开尔文、卢瑟福等等的手稿和论著；文学家和政治家如艾克顿公爵、伦道夫公爵、罗伯特沃波尔、斯坦利鲍尔温、阿尔图尔施尼茨勒和史蒂芬海姆的论著；怡和洋行及威格士公共有限公司的商业档案；皇家格林威治天文台，皇家联邦社团，英外社交圣经集团的相关资料等等。

The Library's policy is to provide the widest possible access to its collections, both by making its catalogues available online and by digitising a growing range of materials. All of these are available freely to the world via the Internet.

图书馆的政策就是通过目录在线化和日益丰富藏书的数字化，为读者提供最大限度查阅资料的方便。通过网络，世界各地均可免费共享这些资源。