RHETOR R1B: Rhetorics of Everyday Life

Build and refine your search

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:19:40 -0700

Library catalogs and article databases offer several ways to narrow or broaden, or otherwise control your search. Below are common methods; if they don't work, look for a "Help" link!

Most default to a quick keyword search (somewhat like Google) that assumes you want items containing all the words you type.

Example:
passions shakespeare

Most let you truncate a word with a wildcard symbol (usually * ) to get plurals and other variant forms.

Example:
passion* gets passion, passions, passionate

Most offer an Advanced Search with more options, such as searching on an author's name, or words in a title.

REFINING YOUR SEARCH
If your search retrieves too many items, use more specific terms, or put in additional keywords.

Example:
eros shakespeare
gets fewer items than love shakespeare

Example:
love poetry shakespeare
gets fewer items than love shakespeare

If your search gets too few items, use more general terms or remove some keywords.

You can also combine terms with OR to get more items.

Example:
love OR eros
gets items containing either term.

FINDING RELATED ITEMS
In library catalogs and most article databases, click on the title of an interesting item and look in the detailed display for links (blue underlined text). These may include the author's name, "Subjects" or "Subject headings". Clicking on one of these links will do a search for items tagged the same way.

MANAGING RESULTS
Many catalogs and databases allow you to save items to a list/folder/etc. and e-mail, print or download the citation. Some will allow you to output citations in a particular citation style (ex: MLA or Chicago).

Library Workshop: Research 101

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:51:32 -0800

Unsure how to start a paper or research project? Think maybe you could stand to brush up on search strategies?

If this sounds familiar, Library Workshop: Research 101 has you covered. This interactive tutorial explores six stages of the research process. You can view it from start to finish, or focus on specific sections as needed:

1: Begin Your Research

Starting strategies from choosing a topic to search keywords.

How to Narrow Your Topic

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:09:43 -0700

"I'm writing a paper on World War II."

Often students start their research with a very general topic, even though they may realize the topic is too large to deal with in a 10-15 page paper. Faculty and librarians tell them, "You have to narrow this down." But how do you narrow a topic?

Ask yourself--

What discipline am I working in? If you are in a sociology class, ask a sociological question about World War II, like "How did WWII affect women?" If it's a political science class, your question might be something like "How did WWII affect presidential elections in the US?"

What are some subsets or aspects of your topic. Some good aspects are:
- by place, such as a country or region
- by time period, such as a century, decade or year
- by population, such as men, women, ethnic group, youth, children or elderly

You can combine these ideas, "What were the major impacts of WWII on women in France, in the decade after the war?"

More ideas in our brief tutorial on topic selection and narrowing.

Newspapers

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:36:48 -0700

Primary Digital Collections

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:37:36 -0700

Databases To Start

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:19:10 -0700

You have access to hundreds of databases in specific disciplines. Here are a few that work for almost any topic.

Literary Criticism and Resources

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:37:37 -0700

Library Hours

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:09:15 -0700

Hours on:
Enter as mm/dd/yy

For:

To select individual libraries/units, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking.

ebrary = ebooks

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:03:22 -0700

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:

Getting Material from NRLF

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:03:09 -0700

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.

"I found a book - now what?"

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:12:02 -0700

You can check out books from most libraries on campus with your Cal 1 Card. Here's information on borrowing, renewing, returning, overdue materials, etc.

Find eBooks

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:09:14 -0700

The Library offers over 100 e-book and e-text collections in specific subject areas. E-books in collections marked * are also available through OskiCat and Melvyl. You can limit your search in OskiCat to "Available online," and in Melvyl to "Online resources."

Chinamaxx Digital Library (humanities and social sciences books in Chinese)
CRCnetBASE * (sciences)
Early English Books Online (literature)
Humanities E-Book Project * (humanities)
Oxford Scholarship Online (political science, religion, philosophy, physics)
Safari Tech Books Online * (computers)
Springer Electronic Book Package * (Melvyl only; sciences and social sciences)
Complete list...

Searching Library Catalogs

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:10:52 -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.

Library Locations

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:05:21 -0800

A Map of the UCB Libraries is located at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/librarymap.html.

Using call numbers to find books

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:46:00 -0700

Books and journals are arranged on our shelves according to the Library of Congress (LC) classification system. Each is assigned a unique call number based on its subject matter and other characteristics. Items on the same subject will often be grouped together.

In using a call number to locate a book on the shelf, consider each element in turn before moving on to the next segment.

These call numbers are arranged as they should appear on the shelves. In each case, the element shown in boldface distinguishes the number from the preceding one:

Q
76
K26

QA
17
F75

QA
17.1
C98

TK
3
Z37

TK
29
M49

TK
29
M5
1997

TK
29
M5
2007

Each call number consists of several elements. For example::

TK
7881.6
M29
1993

The FIRST line, TK, is based on the broad subject of the book. Within Class T for technology, TK represents electrical engineering.

The SECOND line, 7881.6, defines the subject matter more finely. When looking for the book, read this as a whole number with a decimal component. In this example, TK7881.6 represents magnetic recording (a subdivision of TK— electrical engineering).

The THIRD line, M29, usually indicates author, but may also represent a further subject subdivision, geographic area, etc. There may also be a fourth line, formatted the same way. When looking for the book, read the numeric component as if it were preceded by a decimal point. In the example above, the numeric part of M29 should be read as ".29" (and the call number TK7881.6 M29 comes before TK7881.6 M4).

The YEAR of publication, such as 1993, may also be present. These file in chronological order and often indicate successive editions of a book. The call number may also have additional elements, such as volume numbers.

Where's That Book?

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:04:53 -0800

PT9876.22.A6933 L8413 2010

What is this number?

It's called a 'call number', and every book in the library has a unique one, which is printed on the spine of the book.

The call numbers tell you where the book is shelved, if you know how to read them.

Annotated Bibliography

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 12:16:49 -0800

An annotated bibliography lists important works you will use in your research: articles, books, chapter, reports, etc.

Your annotations are not just summaries, but are meant to inform the reader why each work is significant, how it relates to other works on the subject, and how well it succeeds in its task.

Here are a couple of excellent online guides to preparing an annotated bibliography.

Google Scholar UC-eLinks access

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:43:06 -0800

Accessing full-text content from off campus using Google Scholar

Step 1: 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 link next to the search box.

Step 3: In search box next to "Library Links," type in University of California Berkeley and click on “Find Library”

Step 4: Check box next to "University of California Berkeley - UC-eLinks

Step 5: Click on "Save Preferences" at bottom of page

How to Avoid Plagiarism

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:39:23 -0700

In order to avoid plagiarism, you must give credit when

You use another person's ideas, opinions, or theories.
You use facts, statistics, graphics, drawings, music, etc., or any other type of information that does not comprise common knowledge.
You use quotations from another person's spoken or written word.
You paraphrase another person's spoken or written word.

Recommendations

Begin the writing process by stating your ideas; then go back to the author's original work.
Use quotation marks and credit the source (author) when you copy exact wording.
Use your own words (paraphrase) instead of copying directly when possible.
Even when you paraphrase another author's writings, you must give credit to that author.
If the form of citation and reference are not correct, the attribution to the original author is likely to be incomplete. Therefore, improper use of style can result in plagiarism. Get a style manual and use it.
The figure below may help to guide your decisions.

This content is part of the Understanding Plagiarism tutorial created by the Indiana University School of Education.

Zotero Tips

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:04:46 -0700

If you've never used Zotero before, use the QuickStart Guide to get started.

Change your preferences if you want Zotero to

set your default citation style
search the full text of pdfs you save
Automatically attach associated PDFs and other files when saving items

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,

Citing Websites

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:25:05 -0700

Citing a website

The complete citation should look like this:

Anti-slavery International. "Anti-slavery: today’s fight for tomorrow’s freedom." 4/12/2002. http://www.antislavery.org/ (4 Dec. 2003).

The components of the citation are [in this order]:

• Author's name, last name first (if known), or organizational author

• Title of the page, in quotation marks

• Title of the complete website (if applicable), in italics

• Date of the webpage or last revision (if available)

• Full URL including protocol (e.g., "http")

• Date you read it, in parentheses

Google Scholar

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:23:08 -0700

Google Scholar is an easy way to do interdisciplinary research, and with some settings changes can become even more useful. You need a Google account to use these features.

Set up a Google Scholar Alert to be automatically notified when new articles are added to Google on topics of interest:

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.

Make Google display links to full text of articles that Berkeley subscribes to:

Open Scholar. Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, and choose 'scholar preferences'. In the new window, scroll down to 'Library Links', type the word Berkeley. Choose University of California, Berkeley-- UC eLinks, and Open Worldcat Search.

Ever wanted to trace an article’s impact? Google now permits searching within citing articles.

Do a Google Scholar search. Click on the "Cited by" link under a citation and select the "Search within articles citing..." checkbox.

Formatting Citations

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:07:42 -0700

Citing Your Sources - a brief online guide to the main citation styles and a brief discussion on what constitutes plagiarism.
MLA handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th edition. New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2009.
Doe Reference Reference Hall LB2369 .G53 2009
Main Gardner Stacks LB2369 .G53 2009
Many older editions available throughout the UCB libraries.
The Chicago Manual of Style (UCB-only access)
15th ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2003. Searchable, online version of the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition).
Many print editions available throughout the UCB Libraries.
Cite Right: A Quick Guide to Citation Styles--MLA, APA, Chicago, the Sciences, Professions, and More (UCB-only access) Charles Lipson. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2006.
Many print editions throughout the libraries.
Columbia Guide to Online Style (UCB-only access)
Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor. 2nd ed. NY: Columbia Univ. Press. 2006.
Many print editions throughout the UCB libraries.

Ask a Librarian 24/7 Chat

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:03:58 -0800

When you use this chat widget a reference librarian from Berkeley, or another UC campus, or another academic library around the US may be answering your question. We share information about our libraries to make sure you get good answers.

If the librarian can't answer you well enough, your question will be referred to a Berkeley librarian for followup.

Have fun chatting.

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