Library Research Strategies

Covering virtually any topic, books synthesize a lot of information on one or more topics useful for your research. You may need only one or two chapters to get the information you need.  Books can help you:

• get an extensive amount of information on a topic
• put your topic in context with other important issues
• find historical or background information
• find summaries of research to support an argument
• find bibliographies of additional references that point to other relevant research

There are two ways to search for books in the WSU University Libraries collection.  One way is to use SmartSearch in the box below.  The other way is to search our book catalog directly, the process for which is detailed in the Search for books and ebooks tab to the left.

Hugo. (2008, Dec 10). Human Rights. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/h_de_c/3291979569. Used under the Creative Commons License.