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:
Search by keywords, look at long forms of items to find official subject headings:
china warfar*
subject: china military history
china history song dynasty
military art and science china
weapons ancient china
* = truncation symbol/wildcard for variant word endings
ex: immigra* = immigrant, immigrants, immigrating, immigration...
another example:
confucianism and law china
modify search
language: english
sometimes you have redo your search to go broader than your topic:
law china history
language: english
go to Advanced search to combine searches and limits
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")
