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 both primary and secondary sources. Examples:
vietnamese immigra*
southeast asian* immigra*
portuguese california
asian american* sport*
japanese american* baseball
chinese american marriage*
chinese american women
chinese american famil*
african american* california
chinese california
hmong united states
hmong american*
jew* boston
white* race identity united states
wine* migrant labor*
* = 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: national identity
keywords: national identity american
look at long form of records for official subject headings:
subject: national characteristics american
add other useful keywords:
keywords: national characteristics american* immigra*
if you know the name of a person or organization, search it both as an author and as a topic:
author: gamio, manuel
author: irish american benevolent
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")
