COM LIT R1B: Self Styling

Doe Reading Room

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:27:10 -0700

UCB Libraries

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:46:23 -0700

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

Starting off

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:56:17 -0700

This guide has been archived

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 10:17:10 -0800

This course guide was created during a previous semester, and is no longer being actively maintained. Here is a list of current course guides.

Oskicat Tips

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:15:56 -0700

Search for author's name using the author search, e.g., McCarthy, Cormac
Search for topics using a keyword search, e.g., cliche and author*
use an asterisk as a wildcard, author* finds authority, authorship, etc.
Limit results by language (Modify search)
You can browse topics using the Subject links. To find secondary literature on a particular author, look for "criticism and interpretation" subject links such as these:
- Calvino, Italo -- Criticism and interpretation.
- Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, 1799-1837 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Use My Oskicat to view your library account and renew books
Use the Request button to:
page books in NRLF and
recall books that are checked out
Be persistent!

Which catalog?

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:14:47 -0700

Searching Library Catalogs

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:10:41 -0700

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

Library catalog history

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:11:30 -0700

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

You are not searching the full-text of any books.
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.

Proxy server

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:38:24 -0800

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

Where's the PDF?

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:58:29 -0700

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.)

Scholarly Article databases

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:32:44 -0700

The following databases are recommended for finding scholarly journal articles related to literature, film and critical theory. There are hundreds of other article databases on different topics available on the library website, and you can browse them by different subjects.

Sources

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:44:44 -0700

Be critical

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:06:45 -0700

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

Bibliography

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:29:42 -0700

Cite your sources

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:16:43 -0700

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.

A few questions to finish

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:11:00 -0700

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

Chat and email reference

chennesy@library.berkeley.edu (Cody Hennesy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:42:58 -0700

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!