Public Policy Research Guide

Connecting from Off Campus?

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:00:20 -0700

You can access UCB Library resources from off campus or via your laptop or other mobile device using one of two simple methods:

Proxy Server
After you make a one-time change in your web browser settings, the proxy server will ask you to log in with a CalNet ID or Library PIN when you click on the link to a licensed resource. See the setup instructions, FAQ, and Troubleshooting pages to configure your browser.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)
After you install and run the VPN "client" software on your computer, you can log in with a CalNet ID to establish a secure connection with the campus network.

Library Hours

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:00:51 -0700

Hours on:
Enter as mm/dd/yy

For:

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

Campus Library Map

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:05:19 -0700

Click on the image below to see a larger interactive version of the campus library map.

You can also view/download a PDF map of library locations. For library contact information and building addresses, visit our directory.

Unsure How to Start?

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:09:01 -0800

If you are unsure about your topic, use OskiCat (UCB Catalog--Does not include Law) to find reference books relating to your topic. A reference book will provide a high-level overview and/or background on your topic, as well as citations to get you started.

Tips:

Limit your search to either Doe Reference or the Institute of Governmental Studies Library.
Be broad in your search. For example, if your topic is on education of non-US citizens, search immigration.
Visit the Library and ask for help.

Try your search (you can limit to the above locations once you see results by changing the dropdown menu for location).

Want to try a new database? Use Reference Universe to find chapters in reference books at UCB, with links to the catalog so you can find the book.

Article Databases for Public Policy

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:31:46 -0800

Below are selected databases most useful in finding academic/scholarly articles for your topic. For a more complete list of the article databases, see the full list of Public Policy Article Databases at UCB.

UC-eLinks

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:32:42 -0800

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 isa 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.

Find eBooks

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:29:08 -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."

Oxford Scholarship Online (political science, religion, philosophy, physics)
Springer Electronic Book Package * (Melvyl only; sciences and social sciences)
Ebrary broad coverage of many disciplines, including political science.
Complete list...

Google Books

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:52:50 -0700

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. You can then 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.Try it now:

Find Books, Journal Titles, and More

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:09:04 -0700

Use OskiCat or Melvyl to Find books or Journal Titles (not articles) to see if UCB or UC has the journal. If UCB does not have it, you can request the book/article though the request feature in Melvyl. Allow 1 week+ for the item not at UCB to be available for pickup.

Public Policy Research Organizations

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:38:30 -0800

More Policy Research Organizations

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:46:37 -0800

Public Policy Institute of California
Dedicated to improving the quality of public policy decisionmaking in California, the Public Policy Institute of California provides high quality research and broad outreach programs to a wide range of California-specific topics. Data, reports, and surveys on California policy issues can be found here.

Policy Archive
Free, online research library of over 30,000 reports covering public policy across the United States. Browse by subject or search by keyword.

News Resources

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:54:02 -0800

Here are some general news and newsmedia databases. For a full listing of the Library's news resources, check this list.

Government Information

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:58:08 -0800

This is a partial listing of the government information databases provided by the Library. For a fuller list, please visit the Government Information pages.

Data and Statistics

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:32:07 -0800

These links will guide you to various sources for statistics and data. If you are interested in manipulating a dataset on your own, please visit the Doe Library's Data Lab in 189 Doe.

Google Research Tools

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:45:19 -0800

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 scholar preferences [next to the search box]. Under Library Links, enter the word Berkeley. Choose up to three database providers we subscribe to: Full Text@IngentaConnect; UC eLinks; and Read article via OCLC.

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.

Blogs for Public Policy

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:49:33 -0700

Blogs provide opinions and/or news from a particular agency or organization and breadcrumb link trails to other sites that you may not have already thought about pursuing to develop an area of policy or current events in which you have a focused interest. Here are a few suggested blogs to visit

Rose Report - news and commentary from the the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, Claremont McKenna College.
GovBlog - highlights new developments and publictions from federal, state, local and international government agencies and organizations, from the Doe Library.
New West Notes-Provocative political commentary on California politics and public policy with frequent links to widely-talked about political video from a longtime former Democratic campaign advisor.
Capitol Roundup-More provocative daily commentary and links from the editors of Capitol Weekly and AroundtheCapitol.com.
Rough and Tumble-More of a daily news digest than a blog, but extremely useful in tracking the events and people that California's major newspapers are covering.
Calitics-A very irreverent and smart-alecky progressive California politics weblog.

Google Search Tips, Tricks and Hacks

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:59:45 -0700

One of the largest hurdles of using Google is the amount you must weed through. Some searches result in thousands of pages; who has time to go through all that? You dont need to. Did you know you can manipulate a regular Google search with a couple hacks to your search. Its true! Try these search "tricks" during your next google search.

site:XXXXX This search tells google to limit your search to a particular site or domain. For instance, if you limit to site:berkeley.edu you would only search the Berkeley site. Similarly site:.gov would search only sites ending in .gov, and site:.edu would search only sites ending in .edu.

-XXXXX Adding a minus/hyphen sign "-" to a term will remove results with that term. This can be very helpfull when removing common words associated with your topic.

filetype:XXXX Using filetype: will only find certain file extentions (.doc, .pdf, .xcl, etc)

"XXX XXXX" Putting double quotes around a phrase will find only that phrase.

You can also combine some of these search hacks, such as adding -site:nytimes.com to remove results from the New York Times website. More search tricks can be found here.

Citation Management Tools

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:09:38 -0700

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.
EndNote: may be purchased from UC Berkeley's Software Central.

It's always good to double check the formatting -- sometimes the software doesn't get it quite right.

Ask a Librarian 24/7 Chat

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:02:10 -0800

Contact Jesse Silva

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:47:50 -0800

Jesse Silva
jsilva@library.berkeley.edu
510-768-7613

Contact Julie Lefevre

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:48:26 -0800

Julie Lefevre
jlefevre@library.berkeley.edu
510-643-6445

Citation Linker

jsilva@library.berkeley.edu (Jesse Silva) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:24:04 -0700

Have a citation? Use Citation Linker to go directly to the article.

Get immediate access to journal articles, books and other publications (or request them when they are not available) by entering a title and other citation information.

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