As you know a computer is of itself rather dumb: it can only do exactly as it is told. To let a computer search intelligently and efficiently part of the intelligence has to come from you. Here are some tips:

There is some efficiency built into the search program. Use it:

Name:	just the last name. No 'de la', no first or middle names, no abbreviations!
Title:	choose one or two words that define the title well enough. If you are looking for Introduction to the study of Bantu Languages the fastest way to find the book is by asking for Bantu languages.
Keywords:	these are used to search the title and the keywords provided by the book's seller.
First name:	many times not useful at all. Probably no other Hemingway than Ernest also wrote a Farewell to Arms. Searching without the first name would be faster.

The search program can only look up what is in the text.
If you ask for Hemingway, Any book, you will get no book because he did not write a book by that title. Give no title if you want all titles.

Avoid overdescribing.
If you describe a book too precisely you may miss it because the bookseller just chose some other word or abbreviation than you did. Giving some main words may give you a few more titles, with a greater chance that the right one is among them.