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Michigan State University

VM 830: Food Safety Research Methods: Finding Books

A guide to MSU Library resouces and services.

Searching the Library Catalog

The Library Catalog is a searchable listing of all the books, ebooks, DVDs, CDs, government documents, journals, magazines, newspapers, etc. in the MSU Libraries collection. You can use the Catalog:

  • To see whether the Libraries own a particular book
  • To search for books on a specific topic
  • To find out whether the Libraries subscribe to a specific magazine, journal, or newspaper

NOTE: You cannot use the Catalog to find individual articles within a journal--you must use other tools for that (See Finding Articles).

The main search box on the Libraries homepage defaults to a multi-resource search that includes print books and ebooks, as well as articles. A search within that box will result in a "Bento Box" display of a limited number of Articles and Book and Media titles, with a link to "View More" at the bottom. 

However, I recommend you use the Books & Media link below the main search box to launch a more advanced book search, using one or more keywords. You can combine two or more concepts (e.g. "food safety and packaging"; "pesticide residues and food") using the series of boxes.  Use the truncation symbol to retrieve alternate forms of a word (e.g., food contamina* will find food contamination, food contaminants; food label* will find food label, food labels, food labelling). You can limit by Format to restrict your search to ebooks (Scroll down to see the entire list of source types). If you live within the U.S., we can arrange to ship most print circulating items to you. See information under "Request Materials."

Food Science Ebook Collection


The Knovel Food Science Collection includes almost 500 fully-searchable handbooks and reference works covering all areas of food science and technology. Many are related to food microbiology, food safety & quality.

Online Reference Resources

Specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, etc. can help you to explore a topic; identify trends, issues, key people, potential keywords for database searching; and find references to books and articles on the subject. You may find the following useful:

Online MS in Food Safety Librarian