ED 500-Level Research Resources: Finding Books

This guide provides resources for Education graduate students; it is specifically geared toward distance education students. Some resources may be located physically in the Marx Library, while others may be available online.

SOUTHcat: USA Libraries' Catalog

To find books, government documents, and media items in USA Libraries' collections, use SOUTHcat: USA Libraries' Catalog. SOUTHcat does not include journal articles.

• Catalog tips and tricks:
  • Keyword searches – use quotation marks to hold phrases together ("higher education")
  • Truncation – use ? after the root of a word to find all its variants (educat? finds educate, education, educational...)
  • Browse the Subject(s) field in records to find the right words for searches. (Example: Try doing a keyword search for "higher education," then look at the subject(s) field in several records. You’ll see that the subject term is "Education, higher." Click the subject heading to find more records with this subject.)
• Revise and refine your searches.
• Watch for repeating call numbers and browse stacks in that area.
• Pay attention to the Location and Status fields. You will need this information to locate the item in the library.

USA students and faculty have free access to the full-text of USA dissertations. Choose "Dissertations & Theses @ University of South Alabama" from the ProQuest database list or type "south alabama" in the School name/code search box on the Dissertations Abstracts search screen. Dissertations completed at other universities will not normally be available in full-text, but are available for purchase.

The following titles are available in the Marx Library and may be available at an academic library near you.