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.
Search OskiCat
Search OskiCat for both primary and secondary sources. Examples:
(keywords) indian boarding school*
(keywords) "wild west"
* = truncation symbol/wildcard for variant word endings
ex: immigra* = immigrant immigrants immigration etc.
look at the titles and official subject terms and find other terms:
(keywords): chicago world's fair
(subject): century of progress international exposition
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")
SMS and QR Codes in OskiCat
Article Databases
Search an article database to find citations (title, author, title of journal, date, page numbers) for articles on a particular topic. The Library gives you access to over 200 article databases covering different disciplines.
1. Think about which academic disciplines might write about your topic. Examples: literature, film, anthropology, history...
2. Find the appropriate article database by subject (academic discipline or department). Look for "Recommended" databases.
Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject
Searching Article Databases
Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject > H > History > America: History and Life (scholarly secondary sources)
frontierland (select a field - optional)
disneyland (select a field - optional)
advanced search
women (select a field - optional)
homestead* (select a field - optional)
Historical period from: 1840 to 1880
Search Results
- click on the title to see full record (including abstracts and descriptors)
- to limit by publication type (peer-reviewed journals, conferences, books, etc.) click on the appropriate tab or link
- if necessary,look for other limits (latest update, journal articles only, english only) and more advanced searches
- select records to save to your personalized list; lists may be e-mailed, downloaded, printed
UC-eLinks - Find Article Text/Location
Once you've searched a database to find articles, you may need to use 
to link to a PDF or html file if the full text is not immediately available. Each database is a bit different, but a good rule of thumb is this: when you see the Uc-eLinks icon click on it to view your article access options, which can range from full text to a call number to an Interlibrary Loan request:
For more information, here's a tutorial on using UC-eLinks.
About JSTOR!
Library home > Articles > General Article Databases > JSTOR
Everyone Loves JSTOR:
- interdisciplinary
- scholarly
- full text available AND searchable - you may find topics you won't find elsewhere because they're only part of an article on a related topic
- covers journals from their earliest publication dates
CAUTIONS:
- DOES NOT INCLUDE THE LAST 3-5 YEARS of a journal! not good for contemporary topics!
- doesn't include as many journals in a particular discipline as the discipline-specific database (example: MLA Bibliography for literature)