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Reference Desk

Reference Email
Duplication Services
Off-site Collections
Rights and Permissions
Instruction and Class Use
Resources for Faculty

Research Materials

African Americans in California
Anthropology Collections
Biography and Genealogy
Incunabula Database
Newspapers and Periodicals
Related Links
Special Bibliographic Files
UCB Library Research Guides

UCB Library Catalogs

Bancroft Library Finding Aids
Pathfinder
GLADIS
MELVYL
Guide to Library Catalogs

During the closure period, the Bancroft Reference, Duplication, and Permissions services will continue to operate on a very limited basis due to the inaccessibility of our collections.

More information is available at "Construction News"


Reference Desk: (510) 642-6481
Reference Email : bancref@library.berkeley.edu

Bancroft Reading Room

How do I find out what's in The Bancroft Library?

Pathfinder, the web-based UCB online catalog, is the main source of information concerning all Bancroft Library materials and collections. Much of the same information can also be found on MELVYL, the UC system-wide online catalog. Pathfinder and MELVYL are supplemented by card catalogs, finding aids for manuscript and pictorial collections, and a small reference collection housed in the library's Reading Room.

An important goal of The Bancroft Library is to preserve the physical integrity of its collections for future generations. This requires certain restrictions on availability and use. All Bancroft's items, books or manuscripts, must be viewed on the premises. While the library encourages the utilization of its unique materials, some of the printed items in its collections are also available at other libraries which offer stack access, circulating privileges, and self-service photocopying -- reader services which a special collections library cannot, by its nature, provide. By using Pathfinder and MELVYL thoroughly, researchers can usually determine if another copy or edition of the item they seek is available elsewhere in the UC Library system. If Bancroft's copy is the only one available, it can usually be paged and read in the Reading Room. (The exception is extremely rare or fragile imprints -- many of which, however, may be available on microfilm). Contact Susan Snyder, Head of Public Services, for permission to use original manuscript collections that exist on microfilm.


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