ENGLISH R1B: Bad Writing

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

Keep in mind that when you are searching a library catalog:

1. You are not searching the full-text of any books. 
2. You can not find articles in the library catalog.

The library catalog was originally a card catalog such as those pictured below.The online catalog still doesn't contain much more information on a specific book than these index cards did in the past. For this reason you need to be persistent when searching the online catalog. Many important keywords might not appear in the catalog record for a particular book, so make sure you try different synonyms if you don't find any good results at first.

Photo of card catalog from OSU Archives on Flickr.

Photo of card catalog index card by dfulmer on Flickr.

It's often best to start your research by looking for books in the library catalogs. At Berkeley we have two different library catalogs. Oskicat is almost always the best place to start.

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 at the Northern Regional Library Facility [NRLF].

Use the REQUEST button in OskiCat to borrow material at the 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.

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

The following databases are recommended for finding academic articles related to literature. There are hundreds of other article databases on different topics available on the library website that you can browse by various subjects. 

• 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.
  

Use the databases below to find book reviews and interviews from newspapers and popular magazines.

• Alt-Press Watch
  Alternative, radical, and independent magazines, newspapers, and journals in North America which report on politics and government, policy and culture, international issues, education, environment as well as reviews of theater, movies and books.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• ProQuest Newspapers
  Includes New York Times (Historical with Index, 1851-2008, 1980-current), Los Angeles Times(Historical, 1881-1988, 1985-current), Wall Street Journal (Historical, 1889-1994, 1984-current).
  

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

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. What are you interested in or passionate about? How can you find out more about those things? Many successful scholars research topics and documents which nobody had ever thought to explore, and tie them together with the strings of their own personal obsessions and thematic fixations. 

It's also important, however, to Critically Analyze Information Sources (Cornell). Doing scholarly research (this is a paper for school, after all) requires different skills than those you've developed from years of online searching. Google and other search engines reward certain approaches that create false expectations and poor research results when you try to transfer those skills to library databases. Here are a few tips:

• Consider what kinds of sources you need. If you know you need peer-reviewed journal articles, where can you find those? In the same way that you wouldn't want to search in the MLA International Bibliography for local movie times, you probably don't want to search in Google for scholarly articles on literature.
• Slow down. There are often really great search features available at your fingertips, and you just have to resist the temptation to hit the Search button for 20 seconds to scan the search interface:
  • 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.

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.

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