Contact Your Librarian
- Jennifer Dorner
- Office Hours: By appointment
- Office Location: 212/218 Doe Library
- Contact Info:
510.768.7059 or Skype ucblib.jdorner - twitter: @ucbhistorylib
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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.
Looking for a location or call number in Doe, Main Stacks or Moffitt? Try the floorplans, or ask for assistance!
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.
All libraries on campus are equipped with "bookscan stations," which allow you to scan documents and save them to a USB drive, or to scan documents and then send them to a printer.
In order to scan documents, you must have the following:
In order to send documents to the printer from any of the public computers in the libraries, you must have the following:
Have more questions? There's more info here.
Researching local topics may require you to go beyond the resources of the Doe and Moffitt Libraries and even beyond the resources that are available through the Library's web site. Important collections of local resources are available in libraries across campus, especially in the Environmental Design Library, the Bancroft Library, the Ethnic Studies Library and the Institute of Governmental Studies Library. There is a very extensive guide on Finding Local Information at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/locinfoAC.html.
Researchers looking for information on local topics often start with newspapers. The selection of newspaper databases listed below cover more recent news. Newspapers not included in these databases may be available in microfilm and located in News & Washington local newspapers. Most are available on microfilm and are housed in the Newspapers & Microfilm collection on the lower level of Doe Library. Others in print or on microfilm may be located in the Bancroft Library or in the Institute of Governmental Studies Library.
To determine whether we own a specific newspaper and its location, search OskiCat for the title of the newspaper (example: Chicago Defender).
If you don't know the title of the newspaper, another option is to search OskiCat for newspapers by subject or by city. Go to the Advanced Keyword Search page in OskiCat and choose "Subject" from the first drop down menu. Then fill in the blank search box with keywords for your topic. Some examples might be:
african americans los angeles newspapers
chinese american newspapers san francisco
Articles related to your topic may also have appeared in magazines or scholarly journals. One place to start searching is in the interdisciplinary databases listed below. If those aren't sufficient, you can locate many other databases by title, discipline or type from our Electronic Resources page. Use the search feature to find what resources we have related to California.
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.
Some Bancroft materials are available online via Calisphere, which includes primary sources from many California libraries and museums.
Before you go:
1. Be prepared! Read secondary sources and know something about your topic.
2. Search OskiCat so you can bring call numbers with you. Use the Entire Collection pull-down menu in OskiCat to limit your search to the Bancroft Library only. (Remember that there are primary sources in many other campus libraries as well.)
3. Learn about the Bancroft's policies: read about Access (bring a quarter for lockers) and Registration (bring two pieces of ID). You may want to read about the new camera policy ($10/day, no flash) or about getting photocopies.
During your visit:
How to Get to the Bancroft Library
The Bancroft is open from 10am to 5pm Monday-Friday (closed on weekends and holidays; shorter hours during Intersession). Paging ends 30 minutes before closing; this means that if you want to use Bancroft materials until 5pm, you need to arrive and request your materials at the circulation desk before 4:30pm.
The Bancroft Library is on the second floor of Doe, on the east side (the side closest to the Campanile). See a floor plan of Doe Library 2nd floor (pdf).
All libraries on campus are equipped with "bookscan stations," which allow you to scan documents and save them to a USB drive, or to scan documents and then send them to a printer.
In order to scan documents, you must have the following:
In order to send documents to the printer from any of the public computers in the libraries, you must have the following:
Have more questions? There's more info here.
Because of their fragility as they age, newspapers have traditionally been preserved by microfilming them.
Microfilm must be read on microfilm reader/printers. The Newspaper and Microfilm Room in 40 Doe Library has them. So does Bancroft Library. Newspaper films are arranged geographically within the News/Micro collection [floorplan.pdf]
Reader/printers allow you to read the films and those in News/Micro allow you to save pages to flash drives in .jpg and .pdf format.
Most newspapers do not have indexes. How do you find articles by subject? By knowing the approximate date of the event you are studying. If you don't know the date, you can use the index to a different newspaper as a way to find out.
In News/Micro you will find microfilm of many California newspapers. Few of them are indexed so you should prepare before your visit a list of dates of issues that you want to look at.
The San Francisco Chronicle is available full text online only up to 1922. Indexes for other years are available in News/Micro:
1913-1949 San Francisco Newspapers Index (Also see Microfiche 10904 Guide) MICROFICHE 10904 NEWS/MICRO
1950-1980 San Francisco Newspapers Index MICROFICHE 10503 NEWS/MICRO
July 1970-Sept 1975 California News Index AJ3.C16 NEWS/MICRO
1976- present San Francisco Chronicle Index AJ21. S25. N4 NEWS/MICRO
To find other newspapers, search for them by title in OskiCat. See: Searching newspaper titles in OskiCat: The Movie! (40 seconds)
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.
Use Melvyl to locate materials related to your topic located at other campuses in the UC system, or worldwide. You can use the Request button to request an item from another library, if we don't own it.
Melvyl has changed as of January 2012, and now includes many more articles. Detailed Melvyl help.
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 (Southeast Asian Americans instead of Cambodian Americans) using Google Books, or asking a librarian.
All 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 (African Americans, not African American).
| To retrieve information about... | Enter terms as a subject search: |
| a county's history | Alameda County (Calif.) History. |
| a city's history | Richmond (Calif.) History |
| a person | Muir, John |
| a company | Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation |
Another option is to do a keyword search that combines key terms relating to your topic:
sacramento and population
san quentin and history
japanese and discrimination and california
russian and emigration and california
Books and journals are arranged on our shelves according to the Library of Congress (LC) classification system. Each is assigned a unique call number based on its subject matter and other characteristics. Items on the same subject will often be grouped together.
Each call number consists of several elements. For example, consider:
TK
7881.6
M29
1993
The FIRST line, TK, is based on the broad subject of the book. Within Class T for technology, TK represents electrical engineering.
The SECOND line, 7881.6, defines the subject matter more finely. When looking for the book, read this as a whole number with a decimal component. In this example, TK7881.6 represents magnetic recording (a subdivision of TK— electrical engineering).
The THIRD line, M29, usually indicates author, but may also represent a further subject subdivision, geographic area, etc. There may also be a fourth line, formatted the same way. When looking for the book, read the numeric component as if it were preceded by a decimal point. In the example above, the numeric part of M29 should be read as ".29" (and the call number TK7881.6 M29 comes before TK7881.6 M4).
The YEAR of publication, such as 1993, may also be present. These file in chronological order and often indicate successive editions of a book. The call number may also have additional elements, such as volume numbers.
In using a call number to locate a book on the shelf, consider each element in turn before moving on to the next segment.
These call numbers are arranged as they should appear on the shelves. In each case, the element shown in boldface distinguishes the number from the preceding one:
| Q 76 K26 |
QA 17 F75 |
QA 17.1 C98 |
TK 3 Z37 |
TK 29 M49 |
TK 29 M5 1997 |
TK 29 M5 2007 |
You can use the Media Resource Center's website to browse for films on your research topic, or you can use OskiCat to find films and videos in the UC Berkeley Libraries. Enter your search terms in the "Keyword" box, like this:
social protest california
Use the "Entire Collection" pulldown menu to restrict your search to "Films/Videos/Slides." Your search results may include online video as well as items in the Media Resources Center collection, or elsewhere in the campus libraries.
Google 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:
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).
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.
Unsure how to start a paper or research project? Think maybe you could stand to brush up o
n search strategies?
If this sounds familiar, Library Workshop: Research 101 has you covered. This interactive tutorial explores six stages of the research process. You can view it from start to finish, or focus on specific sections as needed:
Starting strategies, from choosing a topic to finding the right keywords.
Read more
Some reference questions can't be easily answered over e-mail and I am happy to talk with you in person or over the phone if your question is more complex or if you'd like a more in-depth consultation. Trying to schedule appointments via email is time-consuming. Here are some alternatives:
1. Call me at 510-768-7059
2. Use bCal to find my calendar (dorner@berkeley.edu) and locate a free slot between 9-5, Mon-Fri. You can propose an appointment in bCal or contact me by email asking me to reserve that slot for you.
3. If you don't use bCal yet and you have a gmail address, you can send that to me and I'll grant you access to my calendar.
