Finding books
All Divinity Library books are part of the University's online catalogue: Choose iDiscover (to search all libraries across the University); you can search our holdings from anywhere in the world, or via the computers in the Library. Want help with iDiscover? Please look at http://libguides.cam.ac.uk/idiscover Also, just ask a member of library staff for help.
Books are arranged in the following sections:
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1 |
Dictionaries, encyclopaedias, grammars, atlases, concordances |
8 |
History since 1600 |
2 |
Bible as a whole, plus Bibles & commentaries |
9 |
Christian doctrine, ethics & theology |
3 |
Old Testament | 10 |
Philosophy of religion, social science, science & religion, ethics, literature1 |
4 |
Judaism |
11 |
Old section 11 [nothing added to it any more since March 2016]2 |
5 |
New Testament |
11A- 11S |
Islam |
6 |
History to 1600 |
12 |
Liturgy & worship, homiletics, ecclesiology |
7 |
Patristics and classical texts |
13 |
Periodicals |
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14 |
Bibliographies, librarianship |
15 | |||
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16 |
Hinduism |
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17 |
Other religions or religious movements |
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18 |
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19 |
Religion & Anthropology, politics, society & gender |
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20 |
Literary works |
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21 | Science/ Science and Religion |
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22 |
Art and architecture |
The class mark usually consists of the section number followed by the first few letters of the author’s name, except in Section 1 and for pamphlets where the first 3 letters of the title are used. Commentaries in Section 2 are arranged by series.
Since October 2015, we have started adding a running number to newly-acquired and existing books, and have also been more consistent in highlighting secondary literature by the “name of the writer/theologian” (4 letters) plus scholar’s name (3 letters). The volume number within a multi-volume work is captured by using a dot and the number. Where multiple copies of a book exist, these are indicated by the copy number in square brackets. Sadly, all this is still a work in progress (as of September 2020), and will remain to be on our to-do list for at least 10 to 15 further years.
Before May 2016 any newly-acquired books relating to religion & anthropology, politics, society & gender went into section 8 or 10. Since then we have put them into the (newer) sections 18 and 19, there are still a lot of previously-acquired books in sections 8 and 10. Equally, all newly-acquired books relating to Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions or religious movements have been placed into their own sections 15, 16, and 17, since May 2016 . A fair number of previously-acquired books covering religions and religious movements are still in the old section 11. Islam was moved into the new section 11 (i.e. with sub-divisions:
Sub-sections for sections 11, 15, 16, 18 and 19: |
Sub-sections for section 17 only: |
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A = general (not clearly any of the below) |
A = any religions/movements not covered below |
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B = scriptures or primary texts ( e.g. holy writings or letters, in any language, incl. English translations) |
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C = commentary on, or interpretation of scriptures |
C = Confucianism |
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G = Gender studies |
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H = historic |
K = kami-no-michi / Shintoism |
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L -= Legal aspects / Law |
S = Sikhism |
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P = Politics |
T = Taoism / Daoism |
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S = Sociology and relating to society and politics |
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Y = Psychology |
Z = Zoroastrianism |
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20: Literary works |
21: Science/ Science and Religion |
22: Art and architecture |
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Sub-sections: |
Sub-sections: |
Sub-sections: |
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A = general (not clearly any of the below) |
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B = Biology |
B = Buildings |
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C = Chemistry |
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E = Ethics, environmentalism |
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G= Genetics |
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H = History (e.g. an overview of C19 English literature) |
H = History (of science, no strong perspective on TRS) |
H = History |
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N = novels and & forms of narration |
M = Medicine |
M = monuments (incl. graves) |
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P = plays, dramas, stage works |
P = Physics |
S = Sculpture |
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T = literary theory |
R = Science and Religion |
T = art theory |
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V = Verse and poetry |
T = Astronomy; Astrophysics; Astrobiology |
V = visual arts (paintings, drawings, …) |
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Y = Psychology |
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