Search It is the best way to discover books, articles, and other items in the WSU Libraries’ system and beyond. It is the main search box on the library’s home page. You can also check your due dates and renew items through your Search It account. Learn more about your library accounts.
Signing into Search It assures that you'll have the best search experience and the greatest level of functionality. For WSU students, faculty, and staff, signing in means that you will be able to access full-text content, request items from other institutions, and access your library account.
Searching for a Particular Item
- Enter the title in quotation marks (this will search for that exact phrase)
- Note: The title in quotation marks has to be exact. If you don’t get results, try removing the quotation marks from your search.
- Add the author if you have it
- If you need a specific edition, enter the year it was published.
- Example: if you need a book titled “The Science of Ice Cream” by Chris Clarke, try searching for “The Science of Ice Cream” Clarke
- Searching for an article is covered in more detail on the “Find an Article from a Citation” page.
Searching for Resources About a Topic
- Enter keywords into the search bar
- Leave out small words like “the,” “a,” and “an”
- Think of different keywords to use and try searching those too, such as substituting “global warming” for “climate change”
- For more help developing keywords, visit the how to develop keywords page.
- Narrow down results using filters on the left side of the screen. Some of the most useful ways to limit your search:
- Limit to only peer-reviewed resources
- Choose a publication date range if you need only recently published research or items from a certain historical time period
- Limit by type of resource such as book, article, newspaper, ebook, and more
- For more help narrowing or broadening your search, visit the how to narrow/broaden your search page.
For more guidance on using Search It, take our Search It Tutorial
