When you are looking for a book on a certain topic, brainstorm some search terms that might work;  it's good to have more than one. Some should be broad topics, so more specific. If your first search doesn't turn up a lot of books or database articles, try another search term.

If you see a book that looks like it could be helpful, click on the picture of the cover and read the summary to see if it's a good match for your research.

Jot down the titles and call numbers of several books that look like they could be helpful before you go to the shelves. Often books on the same topic are next to each other on the shelf, because nonfiction books are organized by subject.