Contact Your Librarian
- Heather Thams
- Office Hours: Mon/Tues/Thurs 10am-5pm (by appointment)
- Office Location: 212 Doe Library
- Contact Info:
Please note: this course guide was created during a previous semester, and is no longer being actively maintained. For a list of current course guides, please see http://lib.berkeley.edu/alacarte/course-guides.
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.
1. Read an introduction to the campus libraries for undergraduates.
2. Set up your computer for off campus access to library databases.
3. Need a map of the campus libraries? Doe and Moffitt floor plans are here.
4. Each library has its own hours and they may change on holidays and between semesters - click on the calendar for each library to view a month at a time.
5. Information about citing your sources and links to guides for frequently used citation styles here.
Before you can access Library resources from off campus make sure you have configured your computer with proxy server settings.
After you make a one-time change in your web browser settings, the proxy server will ask you to log in with a CalNet ID or Library PIN when you click on the link to a licensed resource.
"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. However, the Library pays for thousands of electronic books, journals, and other information resources that are available only to the campus community. 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.
You access these resources through the Internet, using a browser like Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer -- but these databases are not part of the free, public Web. Resources like Lexis-Nexis, Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, and ARTstor are "invisible" to Google. You will not see results from most library databases in the results of a Google search.
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.
There are many web resources available on the Proposition 8 controversy. Here are some good-quality places to 
start:
Proposition 8 Research Guide from the Institute of Governmental Studies Library, UC Berkeley
Includes background information on the ballot proposition, links to text of related legal decisions, and multimedia. Scroll down for links to poll results, archived versions of campaign websites, and more.
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law (a think tank on sexual orientation law and public policy)
A good source for reports that describe studies on gay couples and families in the United States, plus links to survey and census data relating to LGBT individuals and families.
American Civil Liberties Union - LGBT Relationships
A good source for news and legal documents relating to current legal controversies over same-sex marriage, throughout the U.S.
These books may help you with background research, and can help you find other sources for your topic. Most of them are shelved in the Doe Library reference area (2nd floor of Doe Library).
Reference books can't be checked out, but that means they're always on the shelf when you need them!
When you search OskiCat or Melvyl for books and reports on same-sex marriage, you may find that many of your search results are located in th
e Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) Library in Moses Hall. The IGS library is a small, specialized library that focuses on California's governmental history and public policy, collecting materials like reports (governmental and non-governmental), campaign literature, local newspaper clippings, and more. Many of their items that you find in OskiCat are on the web; click the title in your search results to see the link to the online version.
Sometimes the OskiCat records for IGS materials can be confusing. Here's an example:
Read more
Use OskiCat to locate materials related to your topic, including books, government publications, and audio and video recordings, in the libraries of UC Berkeley. OskiCat will show you the location and availability of the items that we own. (Note: OskiCat does not cover the Law Library, but undergrads can't borrow books from the Law Library.)
Use Melvyl to locate materials related to your topic located at Berkeley, or at other campuses in the UC system. Melvyl also includes articles, and allows you to expand your search to libraries worldwide. You can use the Request button to request materials that UC Berkeley doesn't own.
Here are some terms you can use in OskiCat or Melvyl that may help you find books on your topic. 
Remember, these search engines only let you search brief information about the books - you're not searching in the full text of the books themselves! If you're not getting enough results, try leaving out some search terms, searching for a less specific topic (same-sex marriage california instead of same-sex marriage berkeley) using Google Books, or asking a librarian.
Most of these terms are Library of Congress subject headings -- which means you'll get the most complete results if you enter them exactly as typed (ex: lesbians, not lesbian.).
Read moreGoogle Books contains millions of scanned books, from libraries and publishers worldwide. You can search the entire text of the books, view previews or "snippets" from books that are still in copyright, and read the full text of out-of-copyright (pre-1923) books. Want to read the entire text of an in-copyright book? Use Google Books' Find in a Library link to locate the book in a UC Berkeley library, or search OskiCat to see if UC Berkeley owns the book.
Why use Google Books?
Library catalogs (like OskiCat) don't search inside books; using a library catalog, you can search only information about the book (title, author, Library of Congress subject headings, etc.). Google Books will let you search inside books, which can be very useful for hard-to-find information. Try it now:
ebrary is our largest collection of full text ebooks, with nearly 50,000 titles on a wide range of subjects. Find them in the UCB catalog, OskiCat (keyword: ebrary or limit to "Available Online"), or search the ebrary site directly:
These are the recommended article databases for students in LS R1B; you can also choose from a list of all available databases for LGBT issues or for law and legal studies.
Many article databases contain information about articles (citations or abstracts), not the entire text of the article. Once you've used an article database to find articles on your topic, you may need to use this button:
in order to locate and read the full text of the article. The UC-eLinks button appears in nearly all the databases available from the UCB Library website.
UC-eLinks will link you to the online full text of an article if UCB has paid for online access; otherwise, UC-eLinks will help you locate a print copy on the shelf in the library. If UCB doesn't own the article in print or online format, UC-eLinks can also help you order a copy from another library.
For more information, watch this video tutorial (about 4 min.)
You can also set up UC-eLinks to work with Google Scholar. For more information, watch this video tutorial (about 2 min.)
Most of these databases contain the full text of articles from newspapers and magazines. If no full text is available, look for 
(the UC-eLinks button) to see your options for accessing the entire article.
Your instructor may want you to use "peer reviewed" articles as sources for your paper. Or you may be asked to find 
"academic," "scholarly," or "refereed" articles. What do these terms mean?
Let's start with the terms academic and scholarly, which are synonyms. An academic or scholarly journal is one intended for a specialized or expert audience. Journals like this exist in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Examples include Nature, Journal of Sociology, and Journal of American Studies. Scholarly/academic journals exist to help scholars communicate their latest research and ideas to each other; they are written "by experts for experts."
Most scholarly/academic journals are peer reviewed; another synonym for peer reviewed is refereed. Before an article is published in a peer-reviewed journal, it's evaluated for quality and significance by several specialists in the same field, who are "peers" of the author. The article may go through several revisions before it finally reaches publication.
Magazines like Time or Scientific American, newspapers, (most) books, government documents, and websites are not peer-reviewed, though they may be thoroughly edited and fact-checked. Articles in scholarly journals (in printed format or online) usually ARE peer-reviewed.
How can you tell if an article is both scholarly and peer-reviewed?
Read more
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.
Citation management tools help you manage your research, collect and cite sources, organize and store your PDFs, and create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but all are easier than doing it by hand!
Tip: After creating a bibliography with a citation management tool, it's always good to double check the formatting; sometimes the software doesn't get it quite right.
Javascript required to chat
You can type your question directly into this chat window to chat with a librarian. Your question may be answered by a reference librarian from Berkeley, from another UC campus, or another academic library elsewhere in the US. 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 follow-up.
Have fun chatting!
"There are no dumb questions!" 
That's the philosophy of reference librarians, who are here to save you time and trouble. If you get stuck, you can talk to a reference librarian at any campus library.
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.
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.
