Office Hours: By appointment or Wednesdays 1:30pm-2:30pm, 675A Barrows
Office Location: 438 Doe Library
Contact Info:
(510) 984-3012
Off Campus Access
Before you can access UCB Library resources from off campus or via your laptop or other mobile devices, make sure you have configured your machine using one of two simple methods (Proxy Server is the quickest and easiest):
VPN (Virtual Private Network) After you install and run the VPN "client" software on your computer, you can log in with a CalNet ID to establish a secure connection with the campus network.
Ask a Librarian 24/7 Chat
Javascript required to chat
You do allow embedded content.
Library Hours
Campus Library Map
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.
Library Catalogs
OskiCat Finds 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. Does not include Law Library holdings.
Melvyl Locates titles found at other campuses in the UC system. Melvyl also allows you to expand your search to libraries worldwide. Clicking on the REQUEST button in the detailed view of a catalog record prompt you to fill out a form to request the item through our Interlibrary Loan office. Requires Proxy login for when accessing off-campus.
WorldCat on FirstSearch Another catalog to access records of materials in libraries worldwide. It can be used for interlibrary loan requests. Good for advanced researchers.
E-Book Resources
ebrary A database of more than 37,000 complete e-books covering 16 key subject areas including: business and economics, computers and IT, literature and linguistics, history, political science, and more.
Google Book Search Searches the full text of books on many subjects, including some from the University of California libraries. The full text of a book can be displayed only if the book is out of copyright (generally, published before 1923) or if the copyright holder has given permission. Includes some important African American periodicals including the NAACP's The Crisis, Ebony, and Jet among others.
HathiTrust Pronounced "hah-tee", this cooperative system contains millions of books scanned from UC and other major research libraries, including those digitized by Google and the Internet Archive. Search on information about the book (such as author or title), or words in the text. Full text is available for items that are not protected by copyright. Items in the HathiTrust catalog can be grouped into collections and shared online. For details, see the FAQ page.
Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts) Indexes graduate dissertations from over 1,000 North American, and selected European, graduate schools and universities. Dissertations published since 1980, and master's theses since 1988, include brief abstracts written by the authors. Offers full text of most of the dissertations added since 1997.
eScholarship: University of California, Berkeley eScholarship provides a suite of open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide
UC Press E-Books Collection (eScholarship Editions) 1,400 online titles from the University of California Press covering a wide range of subjects. About 30% of the UC Press books, both in print and out-of-print are represented in this collection.
Journal Article Databases
Historical Abstracts Indexes over 2,000 journals, as well as historical book reviews and dissertations, published worldwide about all aspects of world history (excluding US and Canada) from 1450 to the present. Articles covered were written from 1954 to the present
JSTOR Includes over 1000 scholarly journals with access to more than 2 million articles. JSTOR is an archive which means that current issues (generally the most recent 3-5 years) of the journals are not yet available. For more sophisticated search capabilities, go directly to JSTOR advanced search.
Africa-Wide NiPAD A comprehensive database covering journals, magazines, newspapers, broadcasts, books and more on all aspects of Africa including politics, history, economics, literature, music and natural sciences. Combines the databases previously known as African Studies and South African Studies. Platform change: All NISC databases have switched to the EBSCOhost interface.
AnthroSource An electronic portal to the 32 journals of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), including American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Archeological Publications of the American Anthropological Association, Cultural Anthropology, Ethos, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, and more. Please note: users' access to this resource will be blocked after extended login periods. To avoid blocked access, logout periodically and then log back in.
Anthropology Plus Indexes journal articles, essays, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology as well as ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture. This database combines the resources of Anthropological Index and Anthropological Literature.
Academic Search Complete A multidisciplinary index to articles in more than 10,900 journals and other publications in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese; full-text is available for over 5300 journals.
MLA International Bibliography Indexes journal articles, series, monographs, dissertations, bibliographies, proceedings and other materials supporting critical scholarship on literature, language, linguistics, and folklore. Sponsored by the Modern Language Association.
Project MUSE 250 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Topics include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others.
Book & Text Collections
African Studies Collection Collection of e-books from the Leiden University's (Netherlands) African Studies Collection.
African Writers Series Heinemann's African Writers Series includes works from the canon of African 20th century literature including stories, drama, poetry and other literary works.
African Journal Archive A retrospective digitization project of full-text journal articles published in Africa. Includes journals covering the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, providing access to a multi-disciplinary, multi-country digital archive of Africa's research and cultural heritage contained in its journal literature. Journal articles hosted on the Archive extend back to the first issue (if available) and end with the last pre-current issue (determined by the publisher). The site includes over 700 issues of journal archives of academic, scholarly, institutional, museums, and professional research organizations in Africa.
Black Drama Contains the full text of 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than by more 100 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. The database is includes drama of the Harlem Renaissance and drama, the Black Arts Movement and 20th century African and Caribbean drama.
Black Drama, 2nd edition Covers almost 1,500 plays by more than 200 playwrights. Includes information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. The plays have been selected using leading bibliographies and with the editorial advice of James V. Hatch, co-author with Errol G. Hill of A History of African American Theatre. Complements the other Alexander Street Press database Black Drama,(first edition).
Leiden University Repository Includes free electronic academic publications by Leiden researchers, dissertations, special lectures, and other works. Includes publications from the Leiden African Studies Centre and other Leiden Africanists, the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), and the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM).
Nordic Africa Institute Publications A free, open access online archive to books, research reports, conference proceedings, and journal articles produced and published by the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). Publications cover mainly the Social Sciences within African Studies. Over half of the materials indexed are available full-text, covering the 1960s to current, with the majority in English.
African Newspapers (from the World Newspaper Archive) Includes over 60 full-text searchable historical newspapers published in
Sub-Saharan Africa prior to 1923. Most titles are in English, with some
coverage in African and other European languages.
allAfrica.com Contains over 700,000 articles from 120 news publications throughout Africa. Also includes press releases and documents from 200 governments and non-governmental organizations in and outside of Africa. 30% of articles are in French.
Digital Innovation South Africa (DISA) A free online scholarly resource primarily covering the anti-apartheid liberation struggles in South Africa from 1950 to 1994. Includes primary and some secondary resources from
books and journals to photographs, pamphlets, oral histories and correspondences for researching South African history, politics, and
society.
eHRAF World Cultures Indexes mostly primary source material on cultures or societies representing all major areas of the world. Includes many rare sources as well as English translations of foreign texts.
Empire Online Includes 70,000 images of original manuscript and printed documents to support study and research in the field of colonial and empire studies. Five sections include: Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion and Empire; and Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c. 1607-1969 (coming soon). In addition to original documents, this database contains scholarly essays and analysis.
Ethnographic Video Online A growing collection (currently more than 400 titles) of classic and contemporary ethnographic films, with wide-ranging coverage of the world's regions and cultures, and by some of the most influential filmmakers of the genre. The films explore key themes in anthropology and the broader social sciences, including language and culture, family and kinship, sex and gender, social stratification and status, music and the arts, and religion.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery Includes more than 1.5 million pages, 7000+ books, 80+ serials, 15 manuscript collections as well as court records and reference materials documents related to the antebellum era. Published through partnerships with the Amistad Research Center, Oberlin College, Oxford University, & many other institutions
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (Voyages) Primary resource documenting the African slave trade. Includes detailed
information concerning over 35,000 voyages from 1514 to 1866 with names,
statistics, images and other information.
Visual Collections: Images of Art, History and Culture Includes more than 30,000 images from some 35 image collections from museums, universities and private collections throughout the world in the areas of cartography, fine arts, architecture, and photography. Some of the collections included are free and open to the public; others are restricted to educational use only or on a subscription basis only. Among the collections included are: USF Rare Map Collection, MOAC (Museums and Online Archive of California), Japanese Historical Maps Catena Historic Gardens and Landscapes Archive and many more. [Note: This collection can be viewed in two ways: the Insight Browser allows users to view the collection using a web browser; the Luna Insight software provides greater functionality but must be downloaded.]
Microform
The UC Berkeley Libraries has an extensive microform (microfilm and microfiche) collections, containing valuable information for researchers. The Africana Microform Collections Guide lists a large selection of Berkeley's holdings that include many primary source materials.
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.
Book Review Databases
Academic Search Complete A multidisciplinary index to articles in more than 10,900 journals. Database allows searches to be limited to book reviews under "document type" limiter.
Black Studies Center (BSC) Includes the International Index to Black Periodicals covering hundreds of scholarly and popular African American Studies journals, with many of them in full text. Numerous titles include book reviews.
JSTOR Includes over 1,000 scholarly journals with access to more than 2 million articles, including book reviews from African American Studies journals among other subjects. JSTOR is an archive which means that current issues (generally the most recent 3-5 years) of the journals are not yet available.
Book Review Digest Plus Indexes book reviews of English-language fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults, from over 8000 leading magazines from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Includes several thousand full text reviews. For book reviews published from 1905 to 1982 go to Book Review Digest Retrospective which can be searched separately or simultaneously.
Book Review Index More than 5 million citations to book reviews from thousands of publications.
Project MUSE Interdisciplinary, full text index; African American Studies is one of many humanities subjects covered by this database. Project Muse is useful for reviews published since 1993. To check coverage dates see Browse Journals. SEARCH TIP: From the Search screen use the pull down menu to select Author Reviewed or Title Reviewed.
New York Review of Books Online collection of reviews and essays from the New York Review of Books covering all areas of intellectual thought including science, philosophy, history, politics, and literature. Search the entire collection going back to 1963 or go directly to the current issue.
Film and Television Literature Index with Full Text Indexes 150 scholarly and popular periodicals from 30 countries cover-to-cover and 300 other periodicals selectively for reviews and articles on the topic film and television. Search by keyword, production title and more or browse by some 2000 subject headings.
FIAF: International Index to Film Periodicals Indexes scholarly and popular journals, books, book reviews, and proceedings worldwide on a wide range of topics within the fields of film and television studies. Includes complete data from all volumes of the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972 to the present), the TV-related companion (1979 to the present), the annual volumes of the International Index to Film.
Citation Management Tools
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!
Zotero: A free plug-in that works exclusively with the Firefox browser: keeps copies of what you find on the web, permits tagging, notation, full text searching of your library of resources, works with Word, and has a free web backup service.
RefWorks - free for UC Berkeley users. It allows you to create your own database by importing references and using them for footnotes and bibliographies. Use the RefWorks New User Form to sign up.
How do you cite sources? The means to identify sources is to provide citations within your text linking appropriate passages to relevant resources consulted or quoted. This can be done through in-text parenthetic notes, footnotes, or endnotes. In addition, a bibliography or list of works cited, is almost always placed at the end of your paper. The citation system and format you use will be determined by the citation style you choose.
Below are links to guides for the three major styles used for most academic papers or research in the humanities, social sciences, and some scientific disciplines:
APA Style Guide (Purdue) - From the American Psychological Association. Often preferred in the fields of psychology and many other social sciences.
MLA Style Guide (Purdue) - From the Modern Language Association of America. Often preferred in the fields of literature, arts, humanities, and in some other disciplines.
Turabian & Chicago Styles Guide- From the work of Kate Turabian at the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Press. Often preferred in history and many other disciplines.
How do you choose a style? Ask your instructor which style sheet he or she wishes you to use and if there are other special formatting instructions you should follow.
Where do I find the most authoritative information about these styles? If you have questions or citations not covered by the Library's guides, please consult one of the following official style manuals. If you consult other, less official manuals or online style guides that purport to explain these style, please be aware that these sometimes contain errors which conflict with the official guides:
APA Style
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2010 (call number: BF76.7.P83 2010, multiple libraries). Official APA style guide.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009 (call number: LB2369.G53 2009, multiple libraries). A somewhat simplified guide, adequate for undergraduate and most other research papers.
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2008 (call number: PN147.G444 2008, multiple libraries). For graduate students, scholars, and professional writers (more depth on copyright, legal issues, and writing theses, dissertations, and scholarly publishing).
Turabian Style
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996 (call number: LB2369.T8 1996, multiple libraries).
Chicago Style
The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003 (call number: Z253.U69 2003, multiple libraries).
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.
