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History 102: Locating Books

UC Library Search

UC Library Search infographic about what is included

 

UC Library Search is the University of California’s unified discovery and borrowing system. 

Access it directly or from the Library's homepage to find most UC books, articles, media, archival collections, and more. 

You can also:

  • Narrow your search results using filters (ex: peer review status, date, and language).
  • Save and export records to email or citation management software.
  • Save searches and create/enable alerts or RSS feeds for update notifications.
  • Log in to view and manage your:
  • Saved records, saved searches, and search history.
  • Requested, borrowed, and Interlibrary Loan items.
  • Messages, blocks, fines, and fees.

See the UC Library Search user guide and ask for research help 24/7 for more information.

WorldCat

WorldCat is a global online catalog that helps you find materials held in libraries worldwide. It will help you discover materials that may not be listed in UC Library Search and can tell you where the nearest libraries with the resources you need are located. It is possible to search WorldCat using the Advanced Search option in UC Library Search, but the results do not provide you with the holdings of other libraries. If you are signed into UC Library Search, however, you will see the option to request the item through Interlibrary Loan. The best option may be to use both tools together.

Google Books

Why use Google Books? Library catalogs (like UC Library Search 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 UC Library Search to see if UC Berkeley owns the book. Try it now:

Google Book Search

HathiTrust

HathiTrust (Hathi is pronounced hah-tee) is a partnership of libraries that works towards the goal of developing a shared digital access, preservation, and storage solution for the materials held in the member libraries. The contents of HathiTrust are similar to that of Google Books, but the collecting focus is on scholarly materials and the resource includes content and features (such as indexing and manipulation of results) not available in Google Books.

Downloading PDFs

  • To limit to full view (public domain materials) in your search, check the full view only box.
  • From the full view of any item, click on Download whole book (PDF).
  • Click login.
  • Choose the University of California, Berkeley from the drop down list and click login.
  • Enter your CalNet ID and passphrase.
  • Click Download whole book (PDF).
  • PDF will load and you will choose to either open it or save it.
 
Tips for searching HathiTrust:
  • Phrase Searching: Use quotes to search an exact phrase: e.g., "occult fiction"
  • Wildcards: Use * or ? to search for alternate forms of a word. Use * to stand for several characters, and ? for a single character: e.g., optim* will find optimal, optimize or optimum; wom?n will find woman and women.
  • Boolean Searching: Use AND and OR between words to combine them with Boolean logic: e.g., (heart OR cardiac) AND surgery will find items about heart surgery or cardiac surgery.
 
Tips for doing a full-text search:
  • Phrase Searching: Use quotes to search an exact phrase: e.g., "occult fiction."
  • Multiple Term Searching: When your search terms are not quoted phrases, avoid common words (such as: a, and, of, the) to speed up your search.
  • Boolean Searching: Use AND and OR between words to combine them with Boolean logic: e.g., heart OR cardiac will find items containing the word heart or the word cardiac; heart AND cardiac will find items containing both words. Use a minus (-) to remove words from the result e.g., heart  -cardiac will find items containing the word heart that do not include the word cardiac.

Creating Collections

  1. On the Collections page, click on login.
  2. Choose the University of California, Berkeley from the drop down list and click on login.
  3. Enter your CalNet ID and passphrase.
  4. Click on Create a New Collection and name your collection (the description is optional).
  5. Indicate whether it is a Private or Public collection.
  6. Click on Add.

In the future if you want to edit, change the private/public setting, or delete the collection, your collections will always be listed in the My Collections tab whenever you are logged in to HathiTrust.