Subject Searching

In this section you will learn about subject searching.

A subject search involves searching only in the subject/descriptor field of a database, online catalog or print index. In a database these subject headings/descriptors will be located in the thesaurus for that database. It is important in subject searching to use the correct heading for the topic you are searching, and this often means consulting the thesaurus for a particular database whether in print or electronic format.

The importance of knowing the correct subject heading to use is illustrated by this example. To find books on sleeplessness in the D. Leonard Corgan Libraries Online Catalog, the subject heading, insomnia, must be used.

EXAMPLE: Exact Subject Browse

After typing sleeplessness in the online catalog and clicking on Go, we find the subject heading that we should use to locate four books about this subject is insomnia.

Because subject searching is based on the vocabulary found in the various thesauri, there is a consistency not found in keyword searching.

"Now that you have completed, Subject Searching, let's move onto the next section. To proceed, click on the Combining Search Terms-Boolean Operators link below."