choosing the right databases
ERG is an interdisciplinary field, and as such, journals from many different disciplines may be relevant to your research. How do you choose where to search?
- The Library has tagged certain scholarly databases for ERG. You can browse this list. Look in the left column of that page, under Other Resources for this subject. There you'll find links to databases that are not scholarly-- news sources, government sources, dissertations, and many other types of information.
- The ERG subject page has more information about the library's collections supporting energy research, graced by occasional blog entries from yours truly.
Interlibrary Borrowing
As a Berkeley student you are eligible to use books and articles from other libraries around the United States.
Check OskiCat to make sure UC Berkeley does not own the material you want.
Provide a full and accurate bibliographic citation, including author, title, place and date of publication, and series. You can get citations from professors, from Melvyl, from other articles, from Google scholar. Verify your citations before submitting them for ILL.
Finding Known Citations
Often you need to find a specific article for which you already have the citation. How do you do it?
- Google Scholar If you have the proxy server set up, you may be able to link to a pdf or html file of the article
- Citation Linker This function of UC-eLinks allows you to search for a specific article without knowing which database it may be listed in. You may have to study your citation to determine if it's an article, a chapter in a book, or something else, in order to use Citation Linker.
Subject Headings
Searching for books in Melvyl or Oskicat using Library of Congress Subject Headings can be a more efficient and targeted method than a simple keyword search. These subject headings are also used in some databases. Here are some basic subject headings for ERG topics:
- renewable energy sources or clean energy industries [not 'green energy']
- clean coal technologies
- geothermal resources
- energy efficiency [not 'energy consumption']
- biodiesel fuels or biodiesel fuels industry [not 'biofuel']
- emissions trading [not 'carbon credits' or 'carbon offsets']
- power resources
Let me know if you want advice on subject headings for your own research