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 - OskiCat
Search OskiCat books and all types of materials EXCEPT articles. Examples:
1. keywords; broadening your search terms; finding official subject terms; limiting by language
(keywords) nazi* newspaper*
(keywords) nazi* press
* = 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
press germany history 20th century
press and politics germany 20th century
germany newspapers history 20th century
propaganda, german
press* weimar
modify search
language: english
(use <ctrl> click to select more than one language!)
2. search by subject term - view list of subject headings:
subject: national socialism
3. keep looking for useful subject terms or keywords; think more broadly if necessary; use alternative terms
fascism europe, eastern
childrens literature nazi*
childrens literature national socialis*
textbook* national socialis*
national socialism and education
- 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
Find Dissertations
Find Dissertations by searching Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts) Full Text, which indexes graduate dissertations from over 1,000 North American, and selected European, graduate schools and universities from 1861 to the present. Dissertations published since 1980 include brief abstracts written by the authors and some feature 24-page excerpts. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and some full text coverage for older graduate works.
Also see Find Dissertations and Theses for other specialized sources. Dissertations completed at UC Berkeley can be found in OskiCat, using the feature allowing you to limit to dissertations/theses:
Older dissertations not available full text may be obtained through Interlibrary Loan or using the "Request" option in Melvyl.