Questions? Contact me.
- Lynn Jones
- Office Hours: by appointment or Skype me: lynn.jones1000
- Office Location: 212 Doe Library
- Contact Info:
510 768-7643
Click on the image below to see a larger interactive version of the campus library map.
You can also view/download a PDF map of library locations. For library contact information and building addresses, visit our directory.
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.
|
|
Your instructor wants you to use scholarly [or 'peer reviewed'] sources. What does she mean?
Scholarship is always changing. Try to find the most recent scholarly sources you can.
Read more
Choose a topic.
Do a brain dump: Note down what you already know about your topic, including
Fill in the gaps in your knowlege: get background information from encyclopedias or other secondary sources. Wikipedia can be good here.
Select the best places/ databases to find information on your topic. Look under the History Databases tab of this guide for article database suggestions. Or use a catalog like Oskicat or Melvyl to search for books and other resources.
Use nouns from your brain dump as search terms.
Evaluate what you find. Change search terms to get closer to what you really want.
Refine Your Topic - Using the information you have gathered, determine if your research topic should be narrower or broader. You may need to search basic resources again using your new, focused topics and keywords.
Take a look this short tutorial on beginning your research for more ideas.
Primary sources can be found in a variety of library tools:
For specific search strategies, see the Library's Guide to Finding Historical Primary Sources
The library has created a guide to searching for primary sources in Oskicat, including the best search terms you can use.
This is a list of a few of the many primary source databases in US History, in addition to Oskicat. more
One of the most powerful ways to find primary sources in the Library is to use the names of people. An essential part of your background reading should be to note down names of people involved in your topics.
Names can be searched in the catalogs [Oskicat and Melvyl] in specialized ways: as authors or as subjects. Even people you do not consider authors in the conventional sense may be listed as authors, if:
When searching for primary sources, it's a good idea always to search those names as authors, as well as keywords. Works where the person is listed as an author will always be primary sources.
The Bancroft Library is one of the treasures of the campus and one of the world's great libraries for the history of the American West.
How to Use The Bancroft Library
1. Be prepared! Read secondary sources and know something about your topic before you ask for help.
2. Search OskiCat, limiting your search to Bancroft Library. Also search for Bancroft materials in the Online Archive of California, limiting to the Bancroft Library.
3. Learn how to use The Bancroft. Read about Access (bring a quarter for lockers!) and Registration (bring two pieces of ID!) .
BEFORE YOU GO: Search OskiCat! if the item is in storage ("NRLF") and owned by The Bancroft Library, do not use the Request button in OskiCat. Instead, use the Bancroft's online request form AT LEAST 72 hours in advance (they prefer a week.)
If you have 72 hours in advance, you can also use the online request form for materials not in storage; that will speed things up when you arrive. If you don't have that much advance notice, don't bother.
Bring call numbers, titles, etc. with you. You will fill out a form to present to the Circulation Desk and materials will be paged and brought to you.
4. Read about the new camera policy ($10/day and no flash!) or about getting photocopies.
5. Ask for assistance at The Bancroft Library's reference desk.
6. If the collection you're interested in has a finding aid (guide), use it! Some of the finding aids are online, including the Finding Aid for the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Collection.
Flatlands (Oakland, 1966-67) Location: News/Micro MICROFILM 78777, Bancroft BANC NMP 6764:2:3
The Post (shelved as “Oakland Post,” 1963-67) Location: News/Micro NEWSPRINT-1
The Sacramento Observer (Sacramento, 1962-present) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1
The Sun-Reporter (San Francisco, 1943-present) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1
Los Angeles Tribune (Los Angeles, 1941-1960) Location: library only has selected issues, mainly from 1947-1952 in News/Micro NEWSFILM-1
The California Eagle (Los Angeles, 1897-1966) Location: library has 1944-53 in News/Micro NEWSFILM-1, also available from Bancroft
The Peninsula Bulletin (East Palo Alto, 1971-1979) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1
The California Voice (Oakland, 1920-1998) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1 (separate issues)
Richmond Afro American (Richmond, VA, 1938-68) Location: library has selected issues from these dates, some of which may have to be requested from NRLF, others in News/Micro NEWSFILM-1
The Michigan Chronicle (Detroit, 1936-present) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1 (1943-1974)
Before digital storage became easy and cheap, microfilm was a way for libraries to maintain large collections of newspapers, government documents, and historical documents while saving physical storage space. The UC Berkeley Libraries still have extensive microform (microfilm and microfiche) collections, containing valuable information for researchers.
Since each roll of microfilm contains thousands of tiny images of the original pages of a document, you'll need a microfilm reader to magnify the images enough to read them. The UC Berkeley Newspapers and Microforms Department (40 Doe Library) has machines that read, print, and scan images from microfilm and microfiche.
Microfilm and microfiche owned by the UC Berkeley Libraries can be found through OskiCat; use Advanced Keyword Search to limit your search to "All Microforms." In the News/Micro collection, microfilm rolls and microfiche cards are shelved with their own numbering system; click here for a PDF of the collection's floorplan.
If the library location in OskiCat says "Newspapers and Microforms" it is referring to the Newspapers and Microforms Collection, 40 Doe Library.
To get there, enter the north entrance of Doe Library (the side facing Memorial Glade and the East Asian Library). Walk straight ahead until you reach the marble stairs; do NOT take the stairs, but instead turn right and go down the hall until you see stairs to the basement. (There is an elevator around the corner). Once you go down the stairs or elevator, the entrance to the Newspapers and Microforms collection should be directly in front of you.
Floor plan of Doe Library, 1st floor | Floor plan of Doe Library basement
The collection's hours are 10-7 M-Th, 10-5 on Fridays. The collection is not open on weekends, and microfilm cannot be checked out.
There are a limited number of machines -- please plan ahead! Be sure to bring a flash drive so you can save scanned copies of the microfilm to your disk. Scanning is free, but printing from the microfilm reader/printers is 10 cents a page. You MUST use your Cal1 card to pay for printing.
In the News/Micro collection, microfilm rolls and microfiche cards are shelved with their own numbering system; click here for a PDF of the collection's floorplan.
Don't hesitate to ask for help! The News/Micro staff are experts in the use of the machines.
To save to a flash (USB) drive, make sure you have a flash drive before you start! The Library does not sell flash drives.
1. If necessary, turn power on in this sequence:
2. On the reader, the "PC/PR" indicator should be set to "PC". If it is not, simultaneously hold the "PC/PR" and the "Shift" buttons down (for over a second). This action will toggle the reader between connections to the scanner (PC) and to the printer (indicated with a number).
3. Load microfilm/microfiche into the reader as usual. Locate the frame to scan and center it on the outlined frame on the reader screen.
Read moreDaily Cal Indexes
The index to the Daily Cal has changed format many times. Here’s a summary of where each chunk can be found.
1874 - 1929 is indexed in a card file in Bancroft’s University Archive. Easier to get to is the microfilm copy of the card file, which is in Newspaper/Micro Room under call no.: MICROFILM 20031 (3 reels).
1930 - June 1991 is indexed in card file located in Newspaper/Micro Room.
July 1991 - June 1994 is indexed in a printed index, which can be found in both: Doe Reference Periodical Indexes [AJ21.D333] and in the Newspaper Microform Room [AJ21.D29 NEWS\] And in the Online Archive of California website http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf4f59n7s5
September 1997 - current is in Lexis/Nexis (use Easy Search, enter Daily Californian in the By Source Title box
June 1999 - current is indexed and searchable at http://www.dailycal.org/search_advanced.php.
"It's all free on the Internet, right?" "Why should I go through the library's website to find sources for my paper?"
The Web is a great source for free, publicly available information, but not for thousands of electronic books, journal articles, and scholarly resources that are available only to the campus community. Resources like Lexis-Nexis, Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, and ARTstor are "invisible" to Google. You will not see results from these databases in the results of a Google search.*
Through the Library website, you can access hundreds of different licensed databases containing journal articles, electronic books, maps, images, government and legal information, current and historical newspapers, digitized primary sources, and more.
Want to find out more? Get started exploring the Library's electronic resources, or find out how to get access to licensed resources from off-campus.
Read moreThree important databases for research in History.
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 isa 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.
Research Advisory Service for Cal Undergraduates
Book a 30-minute appointment with a librarian who will help refine and focus research inquiries, identify useful online and print sources, and develop search strategies for humanities and social sciences topics (examples of research topics).
Schedule, view, edit or cancel your appointment online (CalNetID required)
This service is for Cal undergraduates only. Graduate students and faculty should contact the library liaison to their department or program for specialized reference consultations.
Javascript required to chat
When you use this chat widget a reference librarian from Berkeley, or another UC campus, or another academic library around the US may be answering your question. We share information about our libraries to make sure you get good answers.
If the librarian can't answer you well enough, your question will be referred to a Berkeley librarian for followup.
Have fun chatting.
In order to avoid plagiarism, you must give credit when
Recommendations
This content is part of the Understanding Plagiarism tutorial created by the Indiana University School of Education.
Finding a citation in a bibliography (online or in print) is a great way to find more resources on your topic.
However, you have to be able to read the citation in order to find the item in the UCB Library.
The most common citations are for books, articles, and book chapters. Can you tell which citation below is for a book? For a chapter? For an article?
Citation management tools help you manage your research, collect and cite sources, and create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but any are easier than doing it by hand!
It's always good to double check the formatting -- sometimes the software doesn't get it quite right.
Using APA 6th? Purdue has produced this very handy quick guide. The fulltext of APA 6th is not available online, but we do have print copies in the EdPsych Library in reference and short term reserve at BF76.7 P83 2010If you've never used Zotero before, use the QuickStart Guide to get started.
Change your preferences if you want Zotero to
To use Zotero to find specific articles in our library's databases, set up the Open URL resolver with this link: http://ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local?
An in-depth discussion of the relative virtues of Endnote and Zotero,
Google Scholar is an easy way to do interdisciplinary research, and with some settings changes can become even more useful. You need a Google account to use these features.
Do your search in Google Scholar. Look in the green toolbar for the envelope icon, and click it. New items will be sent to your email account as they are found by Google.
Open Scholar. Click on the gear icon 
in the upper right corner, and choose 'scholar preferences'. In the new window, scroll down to 'Library Links', type the word Berkeley. Choose University of California, Berkeley-- UC eLinks, and Open Worldcat Search.
Do a Google Scholar search. Click on the "Cited by" link under a citation and select the "Search within articles citing..." checkbox.
