OskiCat Quick Guide

oskicat.berkeley.edu

• What is OskiCat?
• Quick Search
• Advanced Keyword Search
• More Searches
• Limiting and Sorting Search Results
• Printing, Saving, Emailing, and Exporting Results
• My Lists and Preferred Searches
• Requesting Items
• Finding Course Reserves
• Renewing Your Books
• Finding Articles
• My OskiCat

What is OskiCat?

OskiCat is the UC Berkeley library catalog. OskiCat helps you find books and e-books, journal and e-journal titles, films and videos, maps, archival materials, and much more in the UC Berkeley libraries. With OskiCat, you can also manage your library account, renew your items, and locate materials on course reserve. Which UC Berkeley libraries are included in OskiCat?

Quick Search

Search by keyword, title, author, or Library of Congress subject heading. You can limit your Quick Searches by library location (Doe, Moffitt, Bioscience, etc.) or item format (book, online resource, journal/magazine/newspaper, map, etc.) Click the Limit to Available Items checkbox to see only items that are not checked out.

Keyword(s)	Search for words anywhere in the item record, in any order. You can use Boolean connectors (AND, OR, NOT). Truncate words to expand your search (pollut* = pollution, polluters, polluting, etc.) Use quotes to indicate an exact phrase. Note: If you do not use Boolean terms, the default search is AND (all search results will contain all of your words).	campbell biology atomic OR nuclear water pollut* "climate change"
Title begins with...	Enter the exact title of a book, journal, or other item. Note: Do not include initial articles in any language: a, an, the, la, une, der, etc.	grapes of wrath new york times science
Author (last name, first)	Enter the name of an individual author (last name first) or an organizational author (American Phytopathological Society, United States National Park Service, etc.) Note: Names of organizations must be entered in the exact order in which they appear in OskiCat's item records; use Advanced Keyword Search to enter terms in any order.	morrison toni united states environmental protection agency (NOT environmental protection agency united states!)
Subject begins with...	Enter an exact Library of Congress subject heading. If you're not sure of the correct subject heading for your topic, try a Keyword search instead.	california history indians of north america World War, 1939-1945

To choose from a more complete list of item formats, combine multiple search boxes, or limit your search by language or year, choose Advanced Keyword Search.

Advanced Keyword Search

Advanced Keyword Search lets you enter terms in multiple search boxes and offers many options for focusing your search by format, language, or year. You can enter your search terms in any order in Advanced Keyword Search.

Any Field:	Search for words anywhere in the item record, in any order.	women and (shipyard* or docks) and world war ii "world health organization" twain huckleberry
Author:	Search for an individual or organizational author (words can be in any order).	senate united states congress craig venter venter craig
Title:	Search for words in the title of a book, journal, or other item.	guns germs steel
Subject:	Search for words in a Library of Congress subject heading.	italy cookery north america indians

More Searches

Additional search functions are available under the More Searches link, including Library of Congress call number, government document number (SuDoc), ISBN, and ISSN.

LC Call Number	Search for items by Library of Congress call number, the system used by the UC Berkeley Libraries.	PR6103.L375 J65 2004 Q1 .S33 q1s33
Gov Doc Number	Advanced function: search for US federal government documents by SuDoc classification number.	E 1.2:EN 2/16
ISBN/ISSN	Search for items by ISBN or ISSN.	0345296052 978-0141185477
Genre/Form	Advanced function: search for items by genre name.	dictionaries documentary films
Place of Publication	Advanced function: search for items by their place of publication. Note: Words must be entered in hierarchical order (country, state/province, city or county).	France Canada Ontario United States California Berkeley

To choose from a more complete list of item formats, combine multiple search boxes, or limit your search by language or year, choose Advanced Keyword Search.

Limiting and Sorting Search Results

Depending on the type of search you do, the or button will appear at the top of the results screen. Click on either button to refine your search. Searches can be refined by library location, language, format, year of publication, or additional keywords. Sort your search results by relevance (keyword searches only), date, title, author, year (oldest first) reverse year (most recent first), call number, or material type.

Printing, Saving , Emailing and Exporting Results

OskiCat lets you print, save, or email your search results, or export them to citation managers like EndNote or RefWorks. 

To select items for printing, saving, emailing or exporting: 

1. From the search results screen, click the checkboxes beside the items you wish to save. 
2. Click , or to save all records on a page.

To print:

1. Click  (near the top of the search results page) to see your list of saved records.  
2. Click . 
3. Click either Full Display or Brief Display.  (Note: Brief Display does not include call numbers or library locations.)
4. In the Send List To column, select Screen. 
5. Click Submit. 
6. Use your browser’s Print command to print the formatted list of records.  

To save as a text file:

1. Click  (near the top of the search results page) to see your list of saved records.  
2. Click . 
3. Click either Full Display or Brief Display.  (Note: Brief Display does not include call numbers or library locations.)
4. In the Send List To column, select Local Disk. 
5. Click Submit. 
6. You will be prompted to save or open a file named export.txt. Save the file. 

To email:

1. Click  (near the top of the search results page) to see your list of saved records.  
2. Click . 
3. Click either Full Display or Brief Display.  (Note: Brief Display does not include call numbers or library locations.)
4. In the Send List To column, select E-Mail. 
5. Enter an email address and click Submit. 

To export a list of items to EndNote or RefWorks:

1. Click   (near the top of the search results page) to see your list of saved records.  
2. Click . 
3. Click EndNote/RefWorks.

• EndNote:
1. In the Send List To column, select Local Disk. 
2. You will be prompted to save or open a file named export.txt. 
3. Save the file. 
4. In EndNote, import the .txt file using the import filter “University of California-Berkeley Library Catalog” (downloadable from http://endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp).
• RefWorks:  
  1. In the Send List To column, select Screen, and then Submit. 
  2. A new page will appear; select and copy all text on the page. 
  3. Go to refworks.com, log in and select References > Import. 
  4. Select Innovative Interfaces (EndNote/RefWorks Format) as the Import Filter/Data Source. Select University of California, Berkeley (OskiCat) as the Database.
  5. Select Import data from the following text, then paste your copied text into the box and click Import. 

My Lists and Preferred Searches

You can create and save lists of items (My Lists) or save and re-run your search at a later date (Preferred Searches). 

To save items to a list: 

1. Run your search. 
2. From the search results screen, click the checkboxes beside the items you wish to save. 
3. Click . 
4. You will be prompted to log into My OskiCat (instructions).
5. You can create a new list or save your items to an existing list.
6. The next time you log in to My OskiCat, click on My Lists to see and manage your saved items.

To set up a Preferred Search:

• Log in to My OskiCat before you begin searching. 
• When you are logged in to My OskiCat, run your search. 
• When your results are displayed, click . 
• The next time you log in to My OskiCat, click the Preferred Searches link to see a list of your saved searches. Click on the Search link beside the name of your search to re-run your saved search.

To receive alerts:

You can be notified by email when new items that match your search terms are added to OskiCat. To set up search alerts in OskiCat:

1. Log in to My OskiCat (instructions).
2. Check the Mark for Email box beside the name of your saved ("preferred") search. (If you have not yet saved a search,  see the instructions above for setting up a Preferred Search.)
3. You will receive an email when new items that match your search terms are added to OskiCat.

Requesting Items

When an item is checked out by another library user or held in offsite storage, a button will appear in the item record (click on a title in your search results to see the full item record). UCB library card holders can use the Request button to place a hold on a currently checked-out item (recalling the book from another borrower) or to request an item from NRLF (offsite storage). Items with Available status ("on the shelf") cannot be requested.

Finding Course Reserves

Use the Course Reserves tab to search for materials on course reserve, by course number or instructor name.

Renewing Your Books

Use the Renew Items tab to renew items you have checked out. To renew, sign in with your name, Cal 1 Card or library card number, and library PIN (see instructions under My OskiCat). The Library sends courtesy email notices to remind you when your items are due. You can also receive notifications by RSS (see instructions).

Finding Articles

Use the Find Articles tab to choose from a list of article databases available at UC Berkeley. To find articles on bioscience or natural resources topics, select an appropriate database from the Bioscience Library's list of article databases. OskiCat does not index the individual articles within magazines and journals.

My OskiCat

Use My OskiCat to see all library materials you have checked out, renew your library materials, see the status of your holds (requested items), manage your preferred searches and lists, and set up My Account RSS feeds.
Click on the links below for instructions:

MyOskiCat login for UC Berkeley faculty, students, & staff

MyOskiCat login for other patrons

My Account RSS feeds will notfy you when your library materials are due, or when your requested items are available. (What's this?)

To set up My Account RSS feeds:

1. Log in to My OskiCat.
2. Click My Account RSS Feeds.
3. A new page will load; copy and paste that page's URL into the feed reader of your choice.

Go to My OskiCat | Start searching OskiCat