Cyber incident affects University Library’s digital archive

Cambridge University Library  has been struggling with cyber issues relating to its online library.  The library, which is known to have access to all texts published in the UK under normal circumstances, has not been able to uphold this promise as of recently.

The UL has access to every book in the British Library, which can be accessed through the electronic legal deposit. This system is handy for rare books, expensive texts, and obscure articles no one except for Cambridge students really care about. However, on Thursday 2^nd of November the UL suggested an ambiguous “cyber incident” has had an impact on the British Library, which has had a knock-on effect on the UL.

Photo Credits: Iris Rogers

The effect on the British Library has been much more severe. The UK’s largest library has seen Wi-Fi outages, with some staff’s computers being turned off entirely. This has not been a problem at Cambridge’s UL.

The UL last updated their website on Thursday 2nd November, and will be updating on their X/ Twitter account when the electronic legal deposit is working again. This has been going on since Monday 30^th November, so it seems there isn’t a quick-fix. The “major technology outage” is so extensive that there is no given timeframe for how long it will take to be fixed, so it’ll be a while before we can dodge paywalls for articles that aren’t on JSTOR.

Only in person books for a bit. Image credit: Iris Rogers

College and faculty libraries remain unaffected, though access to British Library resources are not available there.

The University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Library have been contacted for comment.

Featured Image Credits: Iris Rogers

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