Advanced Searching: Books

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Wondering what to type in the search box? 

Type in keywords that capture your topic:

• Use simple terms and phrase. 
• Put phrases in quotes to search words together. Ex: "students of color"
• Use AND to connect and narrow ideas. "financial aid" AND "first generation students"
• Use OR for synonyms and related ideas. ("English language learners" OR ELL OR ESL)
• Use truncation and add an asterisk * to search from the the root of a word. Ex: child* also = children

Type in subject terms the databases provide to find sources on a topic:

• Discrimination in higher education -- United States< li/>
• Racism in education -- United States
• Multicultural education -- United States
• Educational equalization -- United States
• Critical pedagogy -- United States

 

 

Searching Ebook Collections

The next step in the process is to find evidence to support your own argument. Books are a great place to browse for more evidence. Holman Library has a collection of over 25,000 electronic books that you can read online.

• You can search for these electronic books, or eBooks, in the library catalog (see instructions below), or you can try searching your topic in ebook databases directly. 

What's in a book?

Books may offer:

• In-depth discussion and analysis of a subject
• Historical background on a topic
• A range of points of view on a subject

Books will also help you:

• Focus your topic
• Find leads to more information on your topic

Books may be for the general public or they may be scholarly.