Meet Our Political Science & Public Policy Librarian

Note: the best way to reach out to Natalia is via email - nestrada@berkeley.edu

Just in time for the start of the spring semester, UC Berkeley has a new Political Science & Public Policy Librarian! 

Natalie Estrada specializes in guiding student and faculty researchers to databases, surveys, and journal articles related to public policy, politics, California government, and (for undergraduates) legal studies. 

“Anyone can come to me,” says Natalia. “But I get especially excited about student research. My job is not only to help find a particular resource but also to help determine whether that resource will actually be useful. This is particularly important these days when there is so much misinformation.”

As the public policy librarian, Natalia is able to offer guidance and curation is ways that an internet search can’t. 

“Like many people, I use Google searches and Google Scholar quite a bit,” Natalia says. “But those tend to either give you only a basic introduction to a topic or give you too much information.”

Natalia notes that as members of the UC Berkeley, faculty, students, and staff have access to a wide range of subscription-based databases, including many governmental information databases. “Just get your VPN and EZ Proxy set up,” she says. “And you can access these databases even when you’re off-campus.”

For Natalia, being a librarian isn’t just a job. She now holds a Masters in Library and Information Science but she readily remembers how intimidating library resources felt when she first encountered them. 

“At [my undergraduate institution], I felt like I was already expected to know so much. If I asked what was perceived as a ‘dumb’ question, I was made to feel like I was wasting that person’s time,” she says. 

“As I’ve gone on to work at various university libraries, I see this trend where students—especially first-generation and low-income students of color—are intimidated by libraries and librarians, who can sometimes be really old school. I want to change that.”