National Technical Reports Library

UC Berkeley, in conjunction with four other UC campuses, is now providing access to the National Technical Reports Library (NTRL). NTRL is a searchable index of over 2 million reports from the National Technical Information Service, which archives technical reports from U.S. government agencies such as the Departments of Defense, Energy, Transportation, Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others. Easy access to full text (in PDF) is available for over 500,000 reports. NTRL is searchable by keyword or by report number. 

 

NTRL will replace Berkeley’s current subscription to the NTIS database through CSA. Other technical reports databases can also be found through the Engineering Library’s guide to technical reports.


OskiCat filter for EndNote

An OskiCat import filter is available for EndNote users. Download the new filter as an update at the EndNote website, under the name "University of California-Berkeley Library Catalog".

A connection filter that allows you to search OskiCat from within EndNote is not currently available but is in the works. Check back soon – we will be posting more information when it is ready!


New books at the Engineering Library

New books are available again at the Engineering Library after a brief interruption while we migrated to the new library circulation system. They will be displayed on the New Book shelf every week and can be checked out immediately (no more one-week embargo!).

If you would like to be notified whenever we receive new books in your subject area, sign up for our New Books RSS feeds.

 

 


Logo design contest for OskiCat

 oskicat

The UC Berkeley Libraries will be launching a new catalog named OskiCat in May. Gone will be the days of Pathfinder and Gladis!

Be a part of Cal history with this chance to design the logo for the new OskiCat catalog. The winner’s artwork will be displayed prominently in the new catalog and on catalog publicity materials.

Eligibility

All UC Berkeley students are eligible to enter the contest. Multiple designs may be submitted.

Guidelines

  • Must feature the name “OskiCat” & the text “UCB Library Catalog”.
  • Trademarked UC logos may be used in combination with words.
  • Should incorporate two or more of the following colors: blue, gold, black, white, gray.
  • PREFERRED WEB formatting: 50H X 275W in pixels; .gif file with
    transparent or #668cb3 blue background; original file in .png or .eps
    (encapsulated PostScript).
  • PREFERRED PRINT formatting: Artwork
    from vector art programs (Illustrator or Freehand); text/font converted
    to outlines; save as .eps file; photographic, placed, or embedded
    images (.jpeg, .tiff, .gif, .psd) are not suitable. 

Submission deadline

Friday, April 17th, 2009.

 

Email submissions or questions to: oskicat [at] library.berkeley.edu

For more contest information and examples, visit OskiCat’s Facebook page.


New library catalog under construction

In late May, the UC Berkeley Library will be launching a new catalog named OskiCat. OskiCat will replace the Pathfinder and GLADIS catalogs and will feature enhanced search and circulation functionality that faculty, students, and staff have requested. We will be releasing more information about the new system in the coming months, but users should be aware that there will be some disruption in the way new materials are processed during this transition. While Pathfinder and GLADIS will still be searchable and show circulation information for materials, new materials will not be added to these catalogs until after the OskiCat transition.

Melvyl and Next-Generation Melvyl will not show new materials for the Berkeley campus, but resources from other campuses will be unaffected.

If you need more information about the new catalog implementation and how it effects you, please contact your subject librarian.


Get reference help 24/7

It’s 11 pm and you are in desperate need of reference help from a librarian. You check the library’s website and see that the Science Libraries IM service (screenname: ucbscilibs) isn’t available, and the library’s not open. Your question is un-Google-able. Wikipedia has failed you. Despair not!

Get help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from a real live librarian* through the new Ask a Librarian service. Ask a Librarian is a chat reference service that connects you to a librarian and emails you a transcript of your chat so you can reference it later. Try it out at Ask a Librarian.

*Please note that the librarian you will be connected with may be a Berkeley librarian, a librarian from another UC, or a librarian from another University.


National Technical Reports Library

Looking for technical reports from government agencies?

Trial access to the National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) is available to UC Berkeley users from Jan. 1 through May 1, 2009. The NTRL is the gateway to the indexes, abstracts, and technical reports of the National Technical Information Service and includes reports from government agencies like the Departments of Defense, Energy, Transportation, and many others. Some full text is available and easily accessible from the database.

Access is available to all on-campus users and off-campus through the library proxy service.


View books in Melvyl

Melvyl’s newest feature lets users view and search the full text of certain books right in the Melvyl catalog! Books that have been scanned by Google Books and are free of copyright restrictions can be viewed when you click into a book’s detailed record in Melvyl. Selected text will be available for Google Books titles that are still in copyright.

Interested in electronic books? Check out UCB’s newest electronic book collection, ebrary! Get started with ebrary.


Video tutorials

The UC Berkeley Libraries offer a range of online video tutorials to help search our online databases and evaluate the information you find. Our newest one is for the database Business Source Complete, a valuable resource for business and industry information and often used for access to full text Datamonitor reports. You can view the tutorial on the Engineering Library's website here.

Screenshot from Business Source Complete video tutorial

Other popular videos produced by the Libraries include how to evaluate full text scholarly material online and how to find Congressional research.

Interested in other video tutorials? Click here.