ED 312: Human Relations for Teachers: Searching for Books Tips

Be persistent in your searching. If you don't have luck with your first search, try some different words.  And when you do find a title that looks good, be sure to notice the Subject Headings for that book as that could give you additional search terms to try. 

Don't put too many words in the search box when looking for books. It's not searching the full-text of the books, so there is very limited space for your keywords to show up.  For example, if you are trying to find the types of food Native Americans cook and eat, you would want to pick out the keywords of Native American food and not the entire sentence. 

After you've completed your search, skim through the list of results.  You can see the title, author, date of publication and sometimes additional data along with the Location in the SMSU Library. 

Before requesting an item through Interlibrary Loan, be sure to

1. Look through the table of contents (if available) to get a good idea of what is covered in the book.
2. Make sure the item is Available
3. Make sure the item circulates -- In other words, make sure it's not in our Reference Collection, Periodical Collection, or an eBook as they aren't available through interlibrary loan.

If you've found an eBook through SMSU, you should be able to view it right on your screen!