Keywords | vs | Subjects |
---|---|---|
natural language words describing your topic - good to start with | pre-defined "controlled vocabulary" words used to describe the content of each item in a database | |
more flexible to search by - can combine together in many ways | less flexible to search by - need to know the exact controlled vocabulary terms | |
database looks for keywords anywhere in the record - not necessarily connected together | database looks for subjects only in the subject heading or descriptor field, where most relevant words appear | |
may yield too many or too few results | if too many results, also use subheadings to focus on one aspect of the broader subject | |
may yield irrelevant results | results are usually very relevant to the topic |
Continue exploring various ways to determine keywords by completing Lesson 6 of the Information Literacy Basics tutorial.