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
1. keyword search with truncation:
keywords: endangered language*
* = truncation symbol/wildcard (child* = child, childs, children, childish, childhood...)
click on the long form of the record to see official subject headings and other key terms you can use to find more items:
subject: language attrition
subject: language obsolescence
subject: language maintenance
subject: language revival
searching by subject keywords brings up a list of the heading and subheadings, for example:
endangered languages encyclopedias
endangered languages india
endangered languages pacific area
2. linguistic relativ*
modify search
language: english
other features:
- modify your searches or use advanced keyword searches to limit to English, to specific years of publication, to a library location, by format (videos, maps, etc.)
- save items to a list and e-mail the list to yourself
- make sure you know the library location, call number and availability (checked out or not?) of the item(s) you want
11 million items and 29 libraries not enough? Try MELVYL, catalog for 10 UC campuses!
