Designed to assist teachers in teaching introductory courses in searching online databases at the adult or secondary level, this manual discusses very basic searching techniques and strategies and is intended to stimulate further study rather than teach in-depth searching skills. Examples in the manual are taken from databases in the Bibliographic Retrieval Services (BRS) system and Datatimes. The rationale and objectives for instruction are presented; the ERIC, ABSTRAX (A400), and Datatimes databases are introduced; specific procedures for going online with BRS and Datatimes are detailed; and factors to be considered before going online are discussed. In addition, two sets of suggested search activities and complete sample searches on seven topics are included, and a 39-item annotated bibliography on student searching is provided. Four appendices include examples of BRS logical operators; a listing of the names, labels, producers, and descriptions of databases available on BRS as of August 1985; a summary of BRS commands, logical operators, and print options; and 20 additional search strategies. (KM)