Information for graduate students and GSIs

Overview 

The UC Berkeley Library is committed to assisting graduate students and graduate student instructors to access and use materials for their own scholarship and in their teaching practice. Let the Library team support you as a scholar and teacher through the following resources. 

Access

  • Your Cal 1 Card serves as your library card for borrowing materials and for access to the Main (Gardner) Stacks, Moffitt Library, and the Media Resources Center.
  • You can also use your Cal 1 Card to pay for printing in the libraries. Scanning to email, cloud storage, and to a USB drive is free.
  • Familiarize yourself with the options and rules for renewals and loan periods.
  • Loan periods vary by library and material type, though most books are checked out to graduate students for three months, and one week for serials.
  • Interlibrary Borrowing helps students obtain materials that are not available at UC Berkeley. International borrowing is also available.
  • Request library privileges at Stanford and UT Austin via the Research Library Cooperative Program (RLCP).
  • Off-campus access to electronic resources — Access online resources from home using either the library proxy or VPN with your CalNet ID.
  • Databases — Search for article databases, e-book collections, digitized primary resources collections, statistical sources, and more.
  • Extending library privileges — Graduate students who are completing unfinished course work, or who are on filing fee status, may have their library privileges extended.
  • Disability resources — Find equal-access Library services and research assistance for persons with physical and print disabilities.

Research support

  • Contact your subject librarian — Specific librarians are designated to support each academic department and program, and serve as the first point of contact for all research and teaching-related inquiries.
  • Graduate Services in Doe Library (Room 208) offers a core non-circulating research collection in the humanities and history, course reserves for graduate humanities and social sciences courses, a quiet and congenial study space for graduate students, and a dissertation writer’s room for doctoral students advanced to candidacy.
  • Study carrels — Assigned study carrels in the Main (Gardner) Stacks are available to graduate students in the humanities and social sciences, who may apply at the Privileges Desk (Doe Library, Floor 1).
  • Library guides — Learn about library tools, research skills, citations, and more.
  • Workshops and tours
  • Subject guides

Teaching support

Scholarly communication and copyright

  • Berkeley Research Impact Initiative — Financial support for faculty members, postdocs, and graduate students who want to make their journal articles free to all readers immediately upon publication.
  • UC copyright education — A wide range of materials related to the use of copyrighted and public domain materials at the University of California. See also, the Library’s copyright and fair use page.
  • eScholarship — This is the California Digital Library’s open access scholarly publishing platform, providing digital publishing services to the University of California that enable departments, research units, publishing programs, and individual scholars to have direct control over the creation and dissemination of the full range of their scholarship.
  • Dissertations and open access — All UC Berkeley graduate students submit their dissertation or thesis electronically. This guide addresses frequently asked questions.

Library policies

  • Library code of conduct — Read about standards for Library use intended to create a safe and pleasant research environment for all patrons.
  • Library privacy policy — The Library is responsible for safeguarding the confidentiality of a borrower’s transactions, as mandated by the California Information Practices Act of 1977.
  • Database conditions of use — It is the responsibility of individual users to ensure their use of Library electronic resources does not breach the terms and conditions specified in the license agreements.

More information