Cross-course pages: Research start points

Finding online academic books, articles and such

An initial note on off-campus (non-campus computer) connections

It has been my experience that it is better to use VPN rather than proxies for connections to websites that are not open to the public but are available to those with a CalNet ID. Our library site will tell you have to use either of these ways (for those times when you are not using a campus computer). I don't mention this on my older

My older research start points page

My older page is more thorough. this version is the bare essentials. If you want more ideas on research techniques and start points, here's the older page: Prior Research Start Points Page

Oskicat — better than you think

Students are probably aware of JSTOR, ProjectMUSE and so on. However, rather than search each of these individually, Oskicat will search a large variety of Web resources that contain academic material with a single search. Further, some books on EBRARY, if you search them directly, will be listed as unavailable and will show only a preview. However, if you access them through an Oskicat search, the full book is available. Huge difference. Go to Oskicat, and from the quick search window select the drop down menu to limit the search to "Available online". That's all that is necessary.

JSTOR

JSTOR remains extremely useful. ... Jan 20, 2013: It appears the JSTOR has added book searches to its Web site.

May 30, 2013: I'm not entirely sure, but I feel that sometimes when I try to go to JSTOR directly (that is, in a Web search engine window like "Google" I type "JSTOR") it doesn't always recognize my status as a UC Berkeley community member and so doesn't give me full access. So, to assert my identity as a UC Berkeley member, I go through the library system. The shortest path I know, perhaps you have a shorter one is: 1) go to the library top page (search "UC berkeley library" or use this link: University of California Berkeley Library, 2) Select "Electronic Resources", 3) type "JSTOR" into the search window.

eBrary

eBrary is a repository of online academic books in their full editions. There are only 77,000 books but they tend to be recently published books so the search hits are of very high quality.

This service trumps Google Books and Google Scholar because of the full edition access, and your ability to write and keep notes on the books. Every student on campus show know about and use this resource.

(Yes, Google will help you look smart by finding paragraphs useful to you. And it is fast. ... In my opinion it is fast and cheap research where "cheap" is not a good word. If you use Google Books, etc., try to extend beyond the little windows of little knowledge that it encourages. Use it as a way to something better, or check data or remind yourself of something, not the end of a research road.)

I have the same access issues as with JSTOR above. You can use the same instructions as above but in the final search window type "ebrary" instead of "jstor".

Hathi Trust (http://www.hathitrust.org/)

As you know, Google has been busy scanning every book it can get its hands on. An interesting side effect of this is that, in order to access library volumes, it promised to give the library a copy of its scan. These scans are collected to a single Web site: Hathi Trust. As of Aug 24, 2014 they report this volume of material on their Web site:

• 11,434,302 total volumes
• 5,899,481 book titles
• 297,818 serial titles
• 4,002,005,700 pages
• 513 terabytes
• 135 miles
• 9,290 tons
• 4,002,793 volumes(~35% of total) in the public domain

The search methods are not convenient and most of the material that gets search hits is ancient, but sometimes old is good. (For example, here's a 1916 catalogue of an exhibition of ukiyoe prints that happened in New York City; here.) And, with a little practice you can learn to make the search methods work for you.