Subject Searching

 

When a record is created for a book, journal, articles, movies, etc. subject headings are assigned to define the record. Subject heading help organize the database and allow you to find all the articles on a specific topic. Subject headings help solve the problem of multiple ways of saying the same thing. For example, if a searcher knows that "automobiles" is used to describe every item on cars, then he/she would use this subject heading to find the items (car, cars, auto, autos, automobiles, etc.)

Example: The following record shows Electronic Commerce as a subject heading. You would use this subject heading instead of e-commerce. Thus, think of synomyns and other ways to state the same word or phrase.

Subject searching only searches the subject heading field (keyword searching, you will remember, searches title, abstract and subject heading fields).