Keyword Searches are Broad
Keyword
searching is a good way to start your research because it allows you
to use natural language words describing your topic.
- Advantage:
you’ll usually find
something -though it may not be the most
relevant title- on your topic. Sometimes there will be no formal subject heading
that corresponds to the topic you have in mind. For example, a
researcher interested in "Mexican Drug Cartels" will not find a
subject heading for that topic. Another researcher looking for
material on "net generation" could also find no appropriate subject
heading.
When you search in Google or Yahoo, you are
searching for a keyword. The computer scans millions of web
pages for the words you typed.
- Disadvantage:
You will get irrelevant
hits. For example, if
you do a keyword search for "Boston", you would find books
published by publishers located in Boston, books written by
author John Boston, CDs by the Boston Pops, recipe for
Boston cream pie.
There are several ways to get around such
problems. The first is to do keyword searches. These can be done not
only in the Library's online catalog, but also in hundreds of
commercial databases (covering books, journals, newspapers,
dissertations, etc.) to which the Library subscribes. Internet
search engines such as Google
also work via keywords.
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Subject
Searches are Specific
Librarians use specific words called Subject
Headings to describe what a book is about.
- Advantage: you can search for the
most relevant
materials, select a narrower topic.
For example, you'll see that all the books
about the death penalty are indexed with the
subject “capital punishment.” You can be confident
that if you search by subject for capital punishment, you will find
all the books in the library that cover this topic.
Another example. If you wanted to find books on Boston during
the revolutionary war, the subject heading would be "Boston (Mass.) --
History -- Revolution, 1775-1783", you would be able to find
materials in Library focused on your topic.
- Disadvantage: Sometimes it is hard to guess
what those words are, so it can be frustrating to use the Subject searches
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El
Cajon, California 92019 
