ENGLISH R1B: Difficult Literature

The library website is your gateway to research at UC Berkeley.

• Library hours and maps 
• Types of resources 
• Over ten million volumes 
• Several dozen libraries

Photo of card catalog from OSU Archives on Flickr.

Photo of card catalog index card by dfulmer on Flickr.

Use OskiCat to locate materials on the shelves of the UC Berkeley libraries and also to:

• renew books online
• find course reserves and to
• place holds on items that are checked out.

Use Melvyl to locate materials at other campuses in the UC system, or worldwide, and also to

• request materials from another library if we don't own it
• find articles from some article databases
• easily format a citation for copying into a bibliography
Melvyl will also show you the location and availablity of items that we own.

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. 

Log in to Request with your Calnet ID and fill out the screens.  Choose the volume you want, for periodicals:

There are hundreds of article databases on different topics (such as Literature) available on the library website, and you can browse them by subject. 

• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  

In addition to scholarly journals, the Library subscribes to a number of news and other primary source databases. A few that are focused on 20th century western newspapers are included below. 

• LexisNexis Academic
  Includes over 6,000 individual titles of international, national and local newspapers and wire services; radio and television transcripts; and business, medical, industry, and legislative magazines, journals, and newsletters. Wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Agence France Press, El Pais and Xinhua (New China) News Agency.
  
• California Digital Newspaper Collection
  Offers over 200,000 pages of California newspapers spanning the years 1849-1911: the Alta California, 1849-1891; the San Francisco Call, 1893-1910; the Amador Ledger, 1900-1911; the Imperial Valley Press, 1901-1911; the Sacramento Record-Union, 1859-1890; and the Los Angeles Herald, 1905-1907. Additional years are forthcoming, as are other early California newspapers: the Californian; the California Star; the California Star and Californian; the Sacramento Transcript; the Placer Times; and the Pacific Rural Press.
  
• Chronicling America
  This site allows users to search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. To date, over 200,000 pages of California newspapers have been digitized.
  
• Historical Newspapers Online
  Indexes newspapers covering all aspects of British life and world affairs in the 19th and 20th centuries. Contains four major historical resources: Palmer's Index to the Times which covers The Times (London, 1790-1905); The Official Index to the Times (1906-1980); The Historical Index to the New York Times (1863- 1922); and Palmer's Full Text Online (1785-1870).
  

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. 

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.)

To use library databases from off campus you have to set up the proxy server: this changes your browser settings.

• Different browsers [Firefox, Chrome, Safari...] have different instructions- they are all here.
• You can set it up on multiple devices
• You log in with your CalNet ID
• There's an alternative: the VPN

What does it look like?

The research process is part of the composition process. Don't be afraid to let your personal taste and inclinations guide the direction of your research. It's also important, however, to Critically Analyze Information Sources (Cornell). 

• What kinds of sources do you need? If you need scholarly articles, search article databases on the library website. If you need movie times, search Google!
• Slow down. 
  • Is there an advanced search page?
  • Can you limit to peer-reviewed articles?
  • Can you limit by the year published?
  • Can you use any subject terms to get more relevant results?
• Iterative searching
  • Learn from the search results
  • Too many results? Too few?
  • Look at citations from good sources

• MLA handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th edition, in print. 
  • Many older editions are also available throughout the UCB libraries.
• Chicago Manual of Style (online). 
  • Also available in print in many different libraries.
• Citing Your Sources. A brief online guide to the main citation styles and a brief discussion on what constitutes plagiarism. 
• Cite Right: A Quick Guide to Citation Styles--MLA, APA, Chicago, the Sciences, Professions, and More (online) Charles Lipson. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2006. 
  • Many print editions are available throughout the libraries.

Fill out this quick survey to finish up the class. thanks!

Research Advisory Service for Cal Undergraduates
You can book a 30-minute appointment with a librarian who will help refine and focus your research, identify useful online and print sources, and develop search strategies for humanities and social sciences topics.

Go to the research help page to have librarians answer your questions online:

• 24/7 Chat Reference
• Email Reference
• Phone Reference
• Library Liaisons (for in-depth, upper-level research)
• Oh, and there's always the reference desk too!

• Comparative Literature
• English and American Literature
• Library Subject Guides
• Library Course Guides