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.
Sample Searches in OskiCat
Search OskiCat for both primary and secondary sources. Examples:
Search by keywords, look at long forms of items to find official subject headings:
american diet
subject: diet united states
subject: diet united states history
keywords: hamburger*
subject: hamburgers
migrant agricultural labor*
migrant agricultural labor* california
migrant agricultural labor* illegal
migrant agricultural labor* undocumented
food service labor*
upton sinclair biography
food relief united states history
* = truncation symbol/wildcard for variant word endings
ex: immigra* = immigrant, immigrants, immigrating, immigration...
advanced search
cookery american
year of publication: after 1949 before 1961
if you know the name of a person or organization, search it both as an author and as a topic:
author: sinclair, upton
author: united states food and drug administration
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")
