Friday, February 22, 2008

Hello! Here's the latest crop of questions from the reference desks at UC Berkeley:
  • I need to find these citations from this (very strangely formatted, incomplete) list given to me by my instructor. Do I look them up in Melvyl or Avery? Which part should I look up in each case?
  • I'm researching early tourism in Hawaii, around the turn of the century when the trend was just starting. Where should I look? (America: History & Life, book catalogs. Referred to dissertation on Hawaiian history & tourism, for bibliography.)
  • I'm looking for an article (scholarly) about corporations and women in the 1970s (Business Source Premier.)
  • I'm looking for articles on Rembrandt's painting "Night Watch." I need general criticism of it, not specific articles about its restoration. (JSTOR better than Art Full Text for this.)
  • I have a paper due tomorrow. I want to write it on diabetes. I need ten sources. I haven't done library research before and don't know much about the process. (Melvyl for books, limiting to Berkeley. Articles from Expanded Academic, ProQuest Research Library. Citation guide for APA style. Good luck!)
  • I'm looking for articles on tobacco and Latinos.
  • I need a history of forest management in the United States. (Pathfinder, suggestion to talk to BIOS librarians when there, possibly look for review article on the topic.)
  • I'm looking for criticism/analysis of two authors' writings about vice and poverty in 19th-century New York City. The authors are George Foster, author of New York by Gaslight, and Fanny Fern. (Google Book Search, biographies of those two authors, books about 19th century NYC low life.)
  • My assignment tells me to do a search in the MeSH database in PubMed, add certain limits to the results, and look for review articles. I don't see any results--what am I doing wrong? (Searching in thesaurus rather than article search--assignment confusingly written.)
  • I'm looking for books on the architectural history of South Berkeley.
  • I'm interested in learning about how designers were thinking about American suburbs from the 1950s through the 1970s. Specifically, I'm interested in cul-de-sacs and community-building strategies.

Friday, February 01, 2008

After a long lull, here's another crop of questions from the Moffitt, Environmental Design, and chat reference services at UC Berkeley...
  • I'm looking for a copy of the book Crack-Up at the Race Riots. (Melvyl)
  • I'm looking for books on Kafka--specifically, literary criticism from a psychoanalytic perspective. (Melvyl, conversation about LCSH for lit crit and benefits of browsing.)
  • I need to find these two books on Greek statuary. They're not where they should be on the shelves. (User was in Moffitt, not Main.)
  • I'm studying the culture of coffee shops--franchises like Starbuck's, and how they've changed how we drink coffee (marketing etc.) as well as independent cafes. I'd like to find books about how Starbuck's etc. has changed coffee culture, and also reviews of local independent cafes. (America: History & Life, Soc Abs, Business Source Premier, local newspapers for articles of local independent cafes, book catalogs--multiple books on the Starbuck's phenomenon in particular, as well as on "affordable luxuries" etc.)
  • I'm looking for information about how thresher sharks are affected by overfishing and specific fishing practices. (ESPM)
  • I'm looking for information on how community organizations, such as the YMCA, affect success for African-American youth. (Soc Abs, Ethnic Newswatch, ERIC, book catalogs.)
  • I'm looking for a book by UCB professor Ananya Roy. If it's not here, can I recall it? (Book catalogs, and yes.)
  • I recalled a thesis about favelas in Rio--has it arrived for me yet? (Referred to circulation.)