
Read an introduction to the campus libraries for undergraduates.
Set up your computer for off campus access to library databases.
Need a map of the campus libraries?
Each library has its own hours. Click on the calendar for each library to view a month at a time.
Looking for a location in Doe, Main Stacks or Moffitt? Try the floorplans, or ask for assistance!
The Library Prize for Undergraduate Research recognizes excellence in undergraduate research projects that show evidence of significant inquiry using the library, its resources, and collections and learning about the research and information-gathering process itself.
If UCB does not own the item you need, we will borrow it for you from another library, if possible. We need a specific citation (example, for books - title, author, date of publication, publisher; for articles, title, author, journal/publication title, date, page numbers).
If you are in MELVYL and find the record for an item UCB doesn't own, click on the "Request" button to initiate the request.
If the item isn't owned by another UC, pull down the "Libraries to search" menu in MELVYL to "Libraries Worldwide" and re-try the search. If you find the item, click on the "Request" button to initiate the request.
If you are not using MELVYL, use the online Interlibrary Loan forms to request an item. Track the progress of your request via "My ILL Requests."
The UC Berkeley Library collects at a research level in the subject of Ethnic Studies, which includes: history, literature, political science, etc. These materials are purchased in virtually all languages of the world and represent the ethnicities of people from all corners of the world.
Ethnic Studies collections are located in multiple campus libraries. Humanities and social sciences materials are located in the Main (Gardner) Stacks, with additional materials in subject specialty libraries such as the Education/Psychology, Social Welfare, Anthropology, Environmental Design, Media Resources Center, etc.
The Ethnic Studies Library , with its departmental focus, features an Asian American Studies Collection, the Chicano Studies Collection, and a Native American Studies Collection.
The Bancroft Library, in addition to being the UC Berkeley’s manuscript and archival collections, holds materials relevant to American ethnic groups in California, the Western United States and Mexico; see the Western Americana collection description for details.
Start your research with the UCB Library catalog, OskiCat to find the library locations and call numbers of materials for your research.
See also the subject guide for African American Studies.
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.
How to Use The Bancroft Library
1. Be prepared! Read secondary sources and know something about your topic before you ask for help.
2. Search OskiCat, limiting your search to Bancroft Library. Also search for Bancroft materials in the Online Archive of California, limiting to the Bancroft Library.
3. Learn how to use The Bancroft. Read about Access (bring a quarter for lockers!) and Registration (bring two pieces of ID!) .
BEFORE YOU GO: Search OskiCat! 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 you don't have that much advance notice, don't bother.
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.
6. If the collection you're interested in has a finding aid (guide), use it! Some of the finding aids are online, including the Finding Aid for the Social Protest Collection.
These are just a few examples of possible background sources on the general subject of Asia. To find more, search OskiCat by keywords (example: asia encyclopedias, china history dictionaries, etc.) or browse the reference collections of Doe Library and the Ethnic Studies Library.
Note that in OskiCat, "Doe Reference - Reference Hall" refers to the hall that includes the reference desk; "Doe Reference" refers to the North Reading Room; see floor plan.
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.
Search OskiCat for both primary and secondary sources. Examples:
1. keywords; broadening your search terms; finding official subject terms; limiting by language
(keywords) mexican american* civil rights
(keywords) indians of north america activis*
* = truncation symbol/wildcard for variant word endings
ex: immigra* = immigrant immigrants immigration etc.

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
transgender* (select a field - optional)
activis* or "civil rights" (select a field - optional)
roe v wade (select a field - optional)
public opinion (select a field - optional)
advanced search
indians of north america (select a field - optional)
sovereignty (select a field - optional)
Historical period from: 1945 to 1990
Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject >C > Chicano Studies > Chicano Database
advanced search
bilingual education (select a field - optional)
years published: 1960 to 1975
limit results to: academic journals
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:
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.
Media Resources Center has terrific lists of DVDs and videos by subject; you can also search OskiCat for DVDs (pull down the "entire collection" menu to "Films/Videos/Slides"). NOTE: some of these titles are secondary sources, some are primary sources, and some are mixed.
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersexual Studies
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:
Use the bibliographies of secondary sources and reference sources to find citations to specific primary sources; search OskiCat to locate them on campus, or ask for assistance at the Library.
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:
1. (keywords) gay rights sources
(subject) gay rights united states history sources
(keywords) mexican american* vietnam* personal narratives
2. Search individuals as author AND as subjects:
(author) chavez, cesar
(subject) chavez, cesar
author: mattachine society
4. Also try limiting by date:
advanced keyword
(keywords) homosexuality
language: english
years: 1945 to 1970
sort by date
5. limit by format:
(keywords) american indian movement pull down "entire collection" menu to "sound recordings"
Library home > Electronic Resources > By Type > Archival Collections and Primary Sources > Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives
Browse > Browse Subjects > Themes (examples: gay and lesbian movements; women's movements)
or
Search > All Subjects: american indian (then select from list)
: alcatraz
: mexican
Library databases of primary sources in American history
All library databases of primary sources
Library of Congress: American Memory
Browse by Topic: (example: Native American History, Women's History)
A searchable and browseable resource that brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. Contains over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of documents, letters, and oral histories; and 8,000 guides to collections. Images are organized into thematic and institutional collections, such as historical topics, nature, places, and technology.
Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement
A multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. Contains all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955, and summaries of major cases going back to the courts founding. The Project also provides biographical information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.
In order to avoid plagiarism, you must give credit when
Recommendations

This content is part of the Understanding Plagiarism tutorial created by the Indiana University School of Education.
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:
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. 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.
You already know that you should evaluate anything you find on the Internet. Here are some reminders of what to look for.
If you want to use Google for research, use Google Books or Google Scholar.
Use the Advanced Search for more searching options.
Please note that Google Books search results do not necessarily include the full text of the book; some include no text at all, some include a limited preview (only some pages of the book).
When you use Google Scholar, make sure to update your Scholar Preferences (see below) so you'll be able to use UC e-links to find the UC Berkeley library locations/online availability of the articles.
Step 1: If you haven't already done this, 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 small icon in the upper right of the screen.
Step 3: In search box next to "Library Links," type in University of California Berkeley and click on “Find Library”
Step 4: Check all the boxes next to "University of California Berkeley"
Step 5: Click on "Save Preferences" at bottom of page
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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).
Schedule, view, edit or cancel your appointment online (CalNetID required)
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.
Other ways to get help: in person, by e-mail, contacting librarian specialists...
And of course: e-mail Corliss!