EDUC 277A: Systemic Educational Reform I

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.

UC-eLinks and Citation Linker

Article Databases or Indexes can search multiple journal titles at once. Sometimes the index will link to full text online; sometimes the index will give you only the citation. Clicking the button will check to see if the article is available online, and if not, it will check for a print version through Melvyl - the catalog for all 10 UC libraries.

What if there isn't a button? Sometimes you find an article in a bibliography, a book or a footnote -- and you want to see if we have it. The Citation Linker searches through our online databases to see if it is available fulltext. If not, it sets up a search for the paper journal in Melvyl. And if we don't have it at Berkeley, it lets you request it through Interlibrary Loan.

Find Articles

There are hundreds of online databases that cover all kinds of material and all of the disciplines that are taught at Berkeley. Some of the core databases for this class are listed below.

JSTOR: Education and Project MUSE: Education search and display the fulltext of highly respected scholarly academic journals -- and unlike most e-journals, JSTOR goes back to the very first volumes -- but it doesn't include the past three to five years.

ERIC
Indexes education journals, articles and unpublished documents on education research and practice. ERIC is from the U.S. Department of Education, and the free version was recently redesigned, adding some great new features.
ProQuest Social Sciences
Because education is interdisciplinary, it's helpful to search other databases in the social sciences. This includes psychology, political science, economics, social services and sociology.
Academic Search Complete
A multidisciplinary index to articles in more than thousands of journals, many are available fulltext.
Education Full Text (plus Education Index Retro)
Indexes articles from English-language periodicals and yearbooks on all topics related to education.

Connecting from Off Campus?

You can access UCB Library resources from off campus or via your laptop or other mobile device using one of two simple methods. (NOTE: Using EndNote? Use VPN, not the Proxy Server)

Proxy Server
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. See the setup instructions, FAQ, and Troubleshooting pages to configure your browser.

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.

Using Google Scholar with UC eLinks

Accessing full-text content from off campus using Google Scholar

Step 1: Set up your proxy server access by following the directions at http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu/. When you get to a point where you are accessing resources that the Library pays for, you will be prompted for your CalNet ID and password. For more help see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/doemoff/tutorials/proxy.html

Step 2: Change your “Scholar Preferences.” Access these by clicking on the link next to the search box.

Step 3: In search box next to "Library Links," type in University of California Berkeley and click on “Find Library”

Step 4: Check box next to "University of California Berkeley - UC-eLinks

Step 5: Click on "Save Preferences" at bottom of page

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.
EndNote: may be purchased from UC Berkeley's Software Central.

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 2010

Power Searching Tips

Power search features for most article databases:

Use synonyms -- there are many ways to express a concept (teenager or teenagers or adolescent)
Use truncation to get different forms of the word, for example teenage* will retrieve teenagers, teenager, teenaged, etc.
Use quotation marks when you want an "exact phrase"

A bit more complex -- but really powerful:

Use "controlled vocabulary" (also called descriptors or subject headings) if the database has them. The ERIC Thesaurus is a very powerful tool. You can browse the Thesaurus by category to get an overview of how the research is organized in a topic area, and to learn the terminology that the editors apply to describe what an article is "about".
Use the special "limits" or "fields" that the database offers. Many let you limit by language, ERIC also lets you limit by:
- Educational Level -- are you interested in secondary? elementary? higher education?
- Audience -- do you want articles oriented towards practitioners or researchers?
- Publication Type -- do you want dissertations? books? journals? classroom guides