HIST 101: Topics in Late Modern Europe

Library Prize for Undergraduate Research

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:21:54 -0700

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.

Quick Links

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:51:54 -0700

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.

Thesis

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:54:53 -0700

The thesis is the controlling idea around which you construct the rest of your paper. In a history paper, the thesis generally explains why or how something happened.

A good thesis derives from a good question. Since the thesis is your conclusion to a scholarly argument, there must be a clear question at stake. A thesis which does not answer a question, or answers a simple or obvious question, is not a thesis. You need to ask thoughtful questions of your topic and primary source material to develop a good thesis.

The online guide, Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students (Bowdoin), is an excellent source of information for History students and section 5c specifically can help you form your research question.

Film and Video in OskiCat

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:38:41 -0700

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.

Primary Sources: Modern European History

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:34:33 -0700

ARCHON: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/
The Historical Manuscript Commission’s gateway to resources for archivists and access to archives and manuscript collections in British history.

EuroDocs: http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page

Foreign Government Resources on the Web: http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/foreign.html

War Poster Collection (University of Washington): http://content.lib.washington.edu/postersweb/

World War II Resources: http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/

Locating Primary Sources

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:21:02 -0700

There are many access points to the vast collections of primary sources available to you.

Certain words and phrases (part of the Library of Congress Subject Headings classification system) will find primary sources in library catalogs. You can use these in OskiCat or Melvyl:

-correspondence
-sources
-diaries
-personal narratives
-interviews
-speeches
-documents
-archives
-early works to 1800
-newspapers

For specific search strategies, see the Library's Guide to Finding Historical Primary Source s.

Your searches will be more successful if, in your preliminary research, you identify specific:

names of relevant individuals and organizations
dates of events
places
what terminology was used at the time by participants and observers? (ex: negro or colored instead of african american)

Organizations with manuscript collections make their collections accessible with finding aids. The tools below allow you to search the finding aids by topic, helping you identify collections available around the world that may inform your research. The Online Archive of California includes finding aids from historical societies, government agencies, libraries in California, including Bancroft Library, and is your best choice for locating archival collections in California.

Primary Sources: Newspapers

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:28:44 -0700

A more extensive list of online newspaper resources are available from the Library's Electronic Resources Finder. Some of these are only aggregated collections of links to U.S. and international newspapers, not all of them contain searchable, full-text articles.

An extensive collection of newspapers on microfilm is located in the Newspapers & Microforms department in Doe Library. Using OskiCat, you can locate newspapers by title, or if you don't have titles, by doing subject or keyword searches.

SUBJECT SEARCHING: Select "Subject Heading" as the search type and enter your search using one of the structures suggested below:

African American newspapers
Mexican Americans--Illinois--Chicago--Newspapers
Warsaw (Poland)--Newspapers
Paris (France)--Newspapers

KEYWORD SEARCHING: Combine search terms with AND and OR. Use * (truncation symbol) to search for multiple word endings. For example:

newspaper* and (poland or polish)
newspaper* and mexic*
(soviet or russia*) and newspaper*

NOTE: the above Boolean searches will produce results including both newspapers and books about newspapers, unless you limit your search to Newspapers/Microforms.

Microfilm & Microfiche

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:30:10 -0700

Before digital storage became easy and cheap, microfilm was a way for libraries to maintain large collections of newspapers, government documents, and historical documents while saving physical storage space. The UC Berkeley Libraries still have extensive microform (microfilm and microfiche) collections, containing valuable information for researchers.

Since each roll of microfilm contains thousands of tiny images of the original pages of a document, you'll need a microfilm reader to magnify the images enough to read them. The UC Berkeley Newspapers and Microforms Department (40 Doe Library) has machines that read, print, and scan images from microfilm and microfiche.

Microfilm and microfiche owned by the UC Berkeley Libraries can be found through OskiCat; use Advanced Keyword Search to limit your search to "All Microforms." In the News/Micro collection, microfilm rolls and microfiche cards are shelved with their own numbering system; click here for a PDF of the collection's floorplan.

Google Books

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:35:16 -0700

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:

Getting Material from NRLF

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:28:08 -0800

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.

Searching Library Catalogs

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:41:55 -0700

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. Next Generation Melvyl also allows you to expand your search to libraries worldwide. Clicking on the REQUEST button in the detailed view of a catalog record prompt you to fill out a form to request the item through our Interlibrary Loan office.

Find Dissertations

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:59:16 -0700

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.

History Article Databases

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:20:04 -0700

Where's the PDF?

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:49:20 -0700

Many article databases contain information about articles (citations or abstracts), not the entire text of the article. Once you've used an article database to find articles on your topic, you may need to use in order to locate and read the full text of the article. The UC-eLinks button appears in nearly all the databases available from the UCB Library website.

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.)

Searching Article Databases

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:39:20 -0700

Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject > H > History > America: History and Life

mexican*                    (select a field- optional)
immigra*                        (select a field - optional)
econom*    (select a field - optional)

historical period from: 1920 to 1940

american identit*                    (select a field- optional)
immigra*                        (select a field - optional)
assimil* or     accultural*     (select a field - optional)

historical period from: 1900 to 2000

Watch: America: History and Life - the Movie! (2 min 34 seconds)

Library home > Articles > General Article Databases > JSTOR

REMEMBER: JSTOR doesn't include articles from the last 3-5 years!!!

Advanced Search

1. immigra*

irish

2. to narrow your search further, add another search term, or try searching for your terms in the titles of the articles:

immigra* (item title)

irish (item title)

advanced search also allows you to limit to certain years of publication (1980-2000, for example), to specific disciplines (ex: African American studies) etc.

Article Databases

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:42:01 -0700

Citation Help

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:47:51 -0700

"Ethics, copyright laws, and courtesy to readers require authors to identify the sources of direct quotations and of any facts or opinions not generally known or easily checked."--

Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press), p. 594

Why cite sources?
Whenever you quote or base your ideas on another person's work, you must document the source you used. Even when you do not quote directly from another work, if reading that source contributed to the ideas presented in your paper, you must give the authors proper credit.

Citations allow readers to locate and further explore the sources you consulted, show the depth and scope of your research, and give credit to authors for their ideas. Citations provide evidence for your arguments and add credibility to your work by demonstrating that you have sought out and considered a variety of resources. In written academic work, citing sources is standard practice and shows that you are responding to this person, agreeing with that person, and adding something of your own. Think of documenting your sources as providing a trail for your reader to follow to see the research you performed and discover what led you to your original contribution.

Citation Management Tools

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:29:05 -0800

Citation management tools help you manage your research, collect and cite sources, organize and store your PDFs, and create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but all are easier than doing it by hand!

Zotero: A free plug-in for 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. Zotero is also available as a stand-alone application that syncs with Chrome and Safari, or as a bookmarklet for mobile browsers.
- Zotero help from the UCB Libraries
- Zotero help from zotero.org
RefWorks - web-based and free for UC Berkeley users. It allows you to create your own database by importing references and using them for footnotes and bibliographies, then works with Word to help you format references and a bibliography for your paper. Use theRefWorks New User Form to sign up.
- RefWorks help from the UCB Libraries
- RefWorks help from RefWorks
EndNote: Desktop software for managing your references and formatting bibliographies. You can purchase EndNote from the Cal Student Store.

Tip: After creating a bibliography with a citation management tool, it's always good to double check the formatting; sometimes the software doesn't get it quite right.

Research Advisory Service

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:21:53 -0700

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.

Microfilm & Microfiche

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:30:10 -0700

Ask a Librarian 24/7 Chat

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 12:14:08 -0800

The Bancroft Library

jdorner@library.berkeley.edu (Jennifer Dorner) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:32:37 -0800

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.)

If the item you want is in storage (the location is NRLF) and it's 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 Bancroft materials that are 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. The finding aids that are not online are near the Registration Desk at the Bancroft Library.

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.