Catalogs
To find books, DVDs, maps, sound recordings, manuscripts, and much more - everything except articles - use a library catalog.
OskiCat = most UC Berkeley libraries
MELVYL = all UC campus libraries, including all UC Berkeley libraries
What's the difference? more details here
For each item make sure you know the name of the physical library, call number, and whether or not it's checked out, library use only, etc.
Call numbers are on the spine of the book; learn how to read them so you can find what you need on the shelves.
Searching OskiCat
Search OskiCat for all library materials except articles. Examples:
vietnamese immigra*
southeast asian* immigra*
arab american* women
african american* police relations
family violence hispanic*
gay* asian american*
hmong united states
white* race identity united states
racial profiling
* = truncation symbol/wildcard for variant word endings
ex: immigra* = immigrant, immigrants, immigrating, immigration...
If you're getting too many irrelevant results (ex: vietnamese american* retrieves a lot of things about the Vietnam War) try pulling down the "keyword" menu to "subject" to search by official subject headings
subject: vietnamese americans
Looking for official subject headings:
keywords: indian casino*
look at long form of records for official subject headings:
subject: gambling on indian reservations
add other useful keywords:
keywords: national characteristics american* immigra*
Try out these OskiCat features:
- limit your search to a type of material (DVDs) or a library location (Doe Reference)
- save items to a list you can e-mail/download/print
- place a recall request online
- request items from storage (NRLF)
- view a list of items you have checked out
- send call numbers to your cell phone (see below)
- receive alerts of new items that match your search terms ("preferred search")
