Education (Early Childhood, Primary, Secondary, Health & Physical Ed.)

Use the library catalogue to access an extensive range of books in our collection that can help broaden your knowledge of your topic.  Many are available in electronic format as ebooks.  If you wish, you can limit your search to retrieve only ebooks.  You can search the library catalogue from the Library home page OR use the handy widget below in the Find books and ebooks box on this page which has been customised to search for hard copy and/or electronic books in our library collection. 

1. Books can be  helpful in broadening your knowledge of your topic and helping you identify keywords. Follow up titles recommended to you by your lecturers by looking for them in the Library Catalogue.
    
2. To search for a particular book where you know the title, enter the title words enclosed in double quotes -- e.g.
        "rethinking learning in early childhood education"
    
3. To retrieve a selection of books on a topic, enter one or more relevant keywords and/or phrases.  
   Tip: Enclose phrases in double quotes and connect your keywords and phrases with AND.
         "early childhood" AND learning AND reading  
   You can also use brackets and the operator OR to improve your search results if needed.  See the Search tips section at the bottom of the Library catalogue help page for tips on searching the Library Catalogue most effectively. 
    
4. Note that you may not always be able to find a book that is wholly and specifically on your topic.  
   At university level, you may be find that individual chapters in books are more specific and relevant for your needs.
    
5. Or you may find it necessary to search for books on a broader topic within which your sub-topic falls, and then look in their Table of Contents and index for your narrower topic. 
    
6. When you find an item in the library catalogue, you can look at the subject headings assigned to that record to provide ideas for further searching.  If it is a hard copy book, you can look at its call number and browse the shelves in that range if you are on campus.
    
7. In addition to books, your research at the university level will usually involve use of another category of scholarly literature in your discipline, and this is journal articles.
    
8. The content in journal articles will typically be briefer, more focused, and more current than what you will have found in books on your topic, and journal articles are thus a very important complement to books.  See the Journals and journal articles and the Library databases links on the left for guidance in locating this important category of material.

The ebooks in our collection are available to view online and some have unlimited printing and downloading.  However some ebook platforms have special requirements for downloading and printing.  Refer to the Library’s Ebook printing and downloading help page for more information.

Print or electronic theses relating to your topic may be a useful source in your research.  See the library’s Theses guide for assistance in finding this category of material.  It includes links to tools for searching Griffith, Australian, and international theses.

​​If the book is out on loan

• You can place a hold on it in order to be in line to borrow it when it is returned.  You can choose for it to be sent to the most convenient campus for you. 

If the book is available for loan but is at another campus

• You can place a hold on it to be retrieved from the other campus and sent to the most convenient campus for you when it becomes available for loan. 
• Students enrolled in off-campus mode, or on rural placement, are eligible to request mail out of Griffith library books to them. 

See the Borrowing and resources tile from the Library home page for more details. 

If Griffith doesn’t hold the title you are after     
(or if it is held by Griffith but not currently available for loan to you)

• You can check if it is available from a participating library via our BONUS+ collaboration scheme and request a copy to be sent to a convenient campus for you.   
• Note:  If it is not available through BONUS+ and you are eligible for our Interlibrary loans and copies service (e.g. Griffith staff and postgraduate students), you can make a request for a copy to be sourced from another Australian library for you to borrow.