You can now text yourself a call number or use a QR code reader to find the location of an item in the UCB Library. Just click on a title in your OskiCat search results, and both options will be displayed on the right.
Doe and Moffitt Libraries Liaison:
Corliss Lee clee@library.berkeley.edu
(510) 758-7899
Ethnic Studies Library:
Chicano Studies:
Lillian Castillo-Speed csl@library.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-3947
Native American Studies:
John Berry jberry@library.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-0941
Asian American Studies:
Wei Chi Poon wcpoon@library.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-2220
2. Read an introduction to the campus libraries for graduate students.
3. Set up your computer for off campus access to library databases.
4. Need a map of the campus libraries?
5. Each library has its own hours. Click on the calendar for each library to view a month at a time.
6. Floor plans for Doe, Moffitt and Main Stacks.
Example:
Topic: Image of African American women in advertising
potentially relevant disciplines:
African American Studies
Gender and Women's Studies
Ethnic Studies
Media Studies
Psychology
Sociology
Business
etc.
Developing appropriate keywords/search terms is an essential part of research. First, break your topic into components. Develop a list of synonyms and alternative terminology for each component. Think about broader and narrower concepts and word variants. What words can you exclude?
Topic: Image of African American Women in Advertising
image(s) or stereotyp(es)(ing) or depict(ion) or portray(al)...
african american(s) or black(s) or minorit(y)(ies)
women or gender
advertis(e)(ing) or media
Remember to be creative with your terminology! More examples:
people of color and environmental activism*
environmental justice
environmental justice and hazardous waste*
environmental equity
environmental discrimination
environmental racism
environmental injustice
To find books, DVDs, maps, sound recordings, manuscripts, and much more - everything except articles - use a library catalog.
OskiCat = most UC Berkeley libraries
MELVYL = all UC campus libraries, including all UC Berkeley libraries
What's the difference? more details here
For each item make sure you know the name of the physical library, call number, and whether or not it's checked out, library use only, etc.
Call numbers are on the spine of the book; learn how to read them so you can find what you need on the shelves.
1. keywords and variant word endings:
multicultur* psycholog*
2. keywords within title:
advanced search
title: multicultur* psycholog*
3. searching phrases:
"performance art" politic*
4. internal truncation/wildcards:
wom*n asian american*
5. searching official subject headings:
first contact indian*
look at official subject headings of relevant items, find official headings:
subject: indians of north america first contact with europeans
6. searching words that appear in subject headings in any order:
advanced search
subject: mexican american* personal narratives
mexican american* oral histories
mexican american* interviews
7. modifying searches
chinatown*
modify search
language: english
or: start with advanced search
try out these OskiCat features:
A large part of the library's collection is stored off campus in an environmentally secure building called the Northern Regional Library Facility [NRLF].
Submit online requests via the REQUEST button in OskiCat to borrow material shelved at NRLF. To receive electronic or paper copies of book chapters or journal articles, submit an online request via the "Request an article from NRLF (photocopy or web delivery)" link that appears in eligible titles in OskiCat. Staff at public service desks of any campus library can assist you with further questions.
EXCEPTION: Materials belonging to Bancroft Library MUST be requested via their online form
Log in to Request with your Calnet ID and fill out the screens. Choose the volume you want, for periodicals:
Media Resources Center lists of media for Ethnic Studies
Media Resources Center: Movies, Race and Ethnicity
You can also find non-print media of all types in OskiCat; search by keywords, author, subject, title, etc. and pull down the "Entire Collection" menu to the type of resource you want (maps, films, etc.)
All Media Resources Center materials must be used on-site.
ebrary is our largest collection of full text ebooks, with 40,000 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:
Find Dissertations by searching Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts) Full Text, which indexes graduate dissertations from over 1,000 North American, and selected European, graduate schools and universities from 1861 to the present. Dissertations published since 1980 include brief abstracts written by the authors and some feature 24-page excerpts. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and some full text coverage for older graduate works.
Also see Find Dissertations and Theses for other specialized sources. Dissertations completed at UC Berkeley can be found in OskiCat, using the feature allowing you to limit to dissertations/theses:
Older dissertations not available full text may be obtained through Interlibrary Loan or using the "Request" option in Melvyl.
Search an article database to find citations (title, author, title of journal, date, page numbers) for articles on a particular topic. The Library gives you access to over 200 article databases covering different disciplines.
1. Think about which academic disciplines might write about your topic. Examples: literature, film, anthropology, history...
2. Find the appropriate article database by subject (academic discipline or department). Look for "Recommended" databases.
Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject
Sample searches in ProQuest Social Science databases:
Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject > Ethnic Studies > ProQuest Social Sciences link to search multiple social science databases
1. Example of a search using multiple terms, alternative terms, truncation,etc
educational mobility (all fields + text)
hispanic* or latino* (all fields + text)
narrow down your results: phrase searching (quotation marks)
"educational mobility" (all fields + text)
hispanic* or latino* (all fields + text)
narrow down your search: do NOT search full text (pull down "all fields + text" menu to "all fields (no full text))"
"educational mobility" (all fields (no full text))
hispanic* or latino* (all fields(no full text))
similar:
incarcerat* or prison* or jail* (all fields (no full text))
youth* or teen* or adolesc* (all fields (no full text))
ethnic* or "of color" (all fields (no full text))
use official subject terms:
incarcerat* or prison* or jail* subject heading)
youth* or teen* or adolesc* (subject heading)
ethnic* or "of color" (all fields (no full text))
More examples:
southeast asian* (all fields (no full text))
memor* or trauma* (all fields (no full text))
war* or genocid* (all fields (no full text))
refugee* or immigra* (all fields (no full text))
central america* (subject heading)
united states (subject heading)
immigra* (subject heading)
Log in to My Research to save search results across sessions, and to set up alerts and RSS feeds.
Sample searches in Ethnic NewsWatch:
Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject > Ethnic Studies > Ethnic NewsWatch
"day labor*" (all fields + text )
gender or famil* (all fields + text)
ethnic group: Hispanic
(note: ethnic group refers to the selection of the newspaper)
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 is a 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.
Library home > Articles > General Article Databases > JSTOR
Everyone Loves JSTOR:
CAUTIONS:
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
Learn more about your topic in advance:
For a complete list, start with the Library home > Electronic Resources > Electronic Resources, Types A-Z > Archival Collections and Primary Sources
Records of government agencies
Congressional information
Lexis-Nexis Congressional includes:
United States Census
Public Opinion Polls
Supreme Court cases
Opinions:
- http://supreme.justia.com/ by year
Making of Modern Law: US Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978
A fully searchable collection of briefs and other documents related to cases brought before the U.S. Supreme Court. It contains over 150,000 cases and 350,000 documents. Search results are linked to the actual full-text PDF documents.
- Lexis-Nexis Academic (Supreme Court briefs 1936- onwards)
In the "Look up a Legal case" section, click on Landmark Cases
on the left, click on Supreme Court Briefs
Oral arguments:
Search OskiCat for primary sources using keywords and adding terms that denote primary sources, such as:
-correspondence
-sources
-diaries
-personal narratives
-interviews
-speeches
-documents
-archives
-newspapers
Examples:
puerto rican* interviews
african american soldiers personal narratives
irish american* newspapers
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.
How to Use the Bancroft Library
1. Be prepared! Read secondary sources and know something about your topic.
2. Before you go: Search OskiCat so you can bring call numbers with you. You can limit your OskiCat search to find materials at the Bancroft Library, instead of all campus libraries (choose "Bancroft Library" from the pulldown menu that says "Entire Collection."). Remember that there are primary sources in many other campus libraries as well.
Important: 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 the OskiCat record mentions a "finding aid" (an index) to a manuscript collection, you should use it to help you find what you need in the collection. If the finding aid is online there will be a link from the OskiCat record, or you can search the Online Archive of California to find it. The finding aids that are not online are near the Registration desk at the Bancroft Library.
3. Learn how to use the Bancroft Library. Read about Access (bring a quarter for lockers!) and Registration (bring two pieces of ID!). Remember to 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.
Read moreCitation 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. Refworks Help is pretty good.
How to link from the Refworks record to a pdf on your hard drive
Exporting from OskiCat to Refworks
EndNote: may be purchased from UC Berkeley's Software Central. The Library's Guide to EndNote. And more Tips from EndNote.
It's always good to double check the formatting -- sometimes the software doesn't get it quite right.
If 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,
The UCB Library Guide to Citing Your Sources discusses why you should cite your sources and links to campus resources about plagiarism. It also includes links to guides for frequently used citation styles. Also:
Google Scholar is an easy way to do interdisciplinary research, and with some settings changes can become even more useful. You may need a Google account to use some of these features.
Open Scholar. Click on scholar preferences [upper right corner]. Under Library Links, enter the word Berkeley. Choose UC Berkeley eLinks and Open WorldCat - Library Search and Save your preferences. UC e-links will now appear in Google Scholar search results.
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.
Do a Google Scholar search. Click on the "Cited by" link under a citation and select the "Search within articles citing..." checkbox.
You already know that you should evaluate anything you find on the Internet. Here are some reminders of what to look for.
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Other ways to get help: in person, by e-mail, etc.
Contact: John Berry - Native American Studies Librarian
Lillian Castillo-Speed - Chicano Studies Librarian
Wei Chi Poon - Asian American Studies Librarian
Corliss Lee - Ethnic Studies Liaison, Doe and Moffitt Libraries
