When in Search It, you can refine your results to print books or ebooks; on the left side, select the format under Type. If you'd like a book right now, you can select Available at WSU Libraries. If you have some time, you can order the book via Summit or Interlibrary Loan, if we do not have it or it is checked out (see the first page for tutorials on how to do this). The light in the catalog will be green if we have it, and yellow/orange if you'll need to order it; just click into the record to do this.

To keep in mind:

• Keywords will search anywhere in the record (title, author, abstract, etc.). Use a combination of keywords about your topic to discover books relevant to your research, and keep a list of new words as you move along.
• Subject headings are applied by librarians to bring all materials on a topic together. You can change your search to only Subject headings; these can be very specific and you may miss resources if you are unsure of the subject heading, so try both subject headings and keywords to see what type of results you get. You can also click into a record and click on a Subject Heading link.

Here are a few search examples. You can see from the number of results that more specific words will give you less results, but they will likely be better suited to your topic. [Note: These only display books, you can see all source types by removing the type from "Active Filters"]:

With full-text searching capabilities, Google Books can be an excellent supplement to using the online catalog. Try doing a keyword search for your topic to identify titles that might be useful for your research. You may be able to preview the items on Google Books, but don't forget to do a title search for the item in WSU WorldCat in order to view the full physical copy (or electronic version, when available). You may also be able to preview books directly through WSU WorldCat by clicking the "Preview this item" button from the catalog record.