Library Guides: Online Privacy: Books and Government Information

Catalogs

To find books, DVDs, maps, sound recordings, manuscripts, and much more - everything except articles - use a library catalog.

OskiCat = most UC Berkeley libraries

MELVYL = all UC campus libraries, including all UC Berkeley libraries

What's the difference? more details here

For each item make sure you know the name of the physical library, call number, and whether or not it's checked out, library use only, etc.

Call numbers are on the spine of the book; learn how to read them so you can find what you need on the shelves.

OskiCat's Request Button

No time to go hunting around the library stacks to find the books you need? Use OskiCat's request feature. Once you find the book you want, click (this button will only appear when an item can be requested). Authenticate yourself with CalNet, and follow the prompts. OskiCat will ask you where you want the book(s) delivered to. You will get an email when the books are ready to be picked up (usually within 1-3 days).

You can also use this button to:

Request materials from NRLF
Place holds on items that are checked out
Place holds on an item that has the status "in-process" which means it is being cataloged.

Getting Material from NRLF (storage)

The Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF) is an off-campus storage facility for some library collections. NRLF materials are available to request in OskiCat.

Borrow print materials from NRLF via the REQUEST button in OskiCat.
Receive electronic or paper copies of book chapters or journal articles via the Request an electronic copy from NRLF link that appears in eligible titles in OskiCat.

Government Information

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
Produced by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) Office in the Library of Congress, CRS reports provide short, to-the-point background and current policy information on issues being worked on by the United States Congress. [1916-Present]

Written by PhD level researchers, many of the reports include extensive citations and timelines. CRS reports are rarely distributed to the public and can offer a window into the reasoning behind legislation, congressional investigations, and U.S. foreign and domestic policy. CRS Reports provide a wealth of background and information appropriate for many academic disciplines and research projects. This collection is part of the Proquest Congressional database.
ProQuest Congressional
Indexing and full-text access for publications of the United States Congress such as hearings, committee reports and prints, CRS reports, as well as executive branch documents. (Congressional Publications) [dates vary]

One stop shopping for all U.S. congressional publications. Provides indexing and abstracts of congressional publications back to 1789, including the full-text of published Congressional Hearings (1824-present; unpublished hearings until 1979), Committee Prints (1817-present), Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports (1916-present), Congressional Record and its predecessor titles (1789-present), U.S. Congressional Serial Set and Maps (1789-present), Executive Branch Documents (1789-1932), Presidential Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations (1789-present), and Legislative Histories (1969-Present; earlier legislative histories are available via ProQuest's Legislative Insight).
ProQuest Legislative Insight
Contains legislative histories and links to the related full-text Congressional documents of more than 18,000 federal laws enacted since 1929. The searchable PDFs include text of the law, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, and committee hearings, reports, and prints.

"Provides access to more than 18,000 professionally researched legislative histories of US Law. Histories include the Public Law itself, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports and prints, Presidential signing statements, and CRS reports. 1929-present"

Non Profit Organizations

Electronic Frontier Foundation
See "Our Work" > Privacy for more details of their work; scroll down on the "Privacy" page for "Surveillance Self Defense" tips.
PrivacyTools.io

Find Dissertations

Find Dissertations by searching Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts) Full Text, which indexes graduate dissertations from over 1,000 North American, and selected European, graduate schools and universities from 1861 to the present. Dissertations published since 1980 include brief abstracts written by the authors and some feature 24-page excerpts. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and some full text coverage for older graduate works.

Also see Find Dissertations and Theses for other specialized sources. Dissertations completed at UC Berkeley can be found in OskiCat, using the feature allowing you to limit to dissertations/theses:

Older dissertations not available full text may be obtained through Interlibrary Loan or using the "Request" option in Melvyl.

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Online Privacy: Books and Government Information