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, Magazines (MAGS), and Datatimes databases are introduced; factors to be considered before going online are discussed; and specific procedures for going online with BRS and Datatimes are detailed. In addition, complete sample searches on six topics are presented, and sample school budgets are provided as well as materials from eight online programs in Washington State. A glossary and a 22-item annotated bibliography on student searching are also provided. Six appendices include a listing of Washington State online searching consultants K-12; examples of BRS logical operators; a listing of the names, labels, producers, and descriptions of databases available on BRS as of February 1987; a summary of BRS commands, logical operators, and print options; a listing of journals indexed in Magazine Index; and 20 additional search strategies. (KM)