When looking for materials on your subject it is important to remember that title, keyword and subject searching produce differing results.

• For a title search to be effective, you must know the exact title of the book, periodical or other document you are seeking.
• A subject search will only retrieve materials if the word/phrase you enter is a Library of Congress Subject Heading. These are a group of fixed words and phrases which libraries use to classify books into subjects. However, there is no guarantee that the terms you enter will match these headings. That is why the option to keyword search is so helpful.
• A keyword search will retrieve results if the words you enter appear anywhere in a record (title, subject, etc.).

Generally, a good approach is to first try a search by subject. If you do not find useful materials, try a keyword search.

Next: How to Search the Online Catalog by Subject