Once you've run a search, use the "Refine My Results" options on the left side of the page. It's a quick way to drill down to the most useful results without paging through a lot of items you're not really interested in. Options often include:
Resource type (examples: print book, ebook, article, government document)
Library (example: UW Tacoma)
Creation date
Language
Topic
Classification LCC (Library of Congress call numbers)