Search Techniques

SEARCH TECHNIQUES 
C.   Constructing a search statement: Subject vs. keyword searching

KEYWORDS

So far, our examples of search terms for any given topic have been keywords.  When you do a keyword search, the search system looks for your terms in several fields (usually title, abstract, and subject headings) at the same time.  For many topics, a keyword search is the most appropriate and efficient type of search to do.  For other topics, a keyword search can retrieve an overwhelming number of citations, some more relevant than others.

For a search on caring for adolescents with diabetes, we could do a keyword (Select a Field (optional)) search using the statement care and adolescen* and diabet* and that search might retrieve, say, 575 records.

As explained above, these 575 records contain our keywords in any of several fields and in any context.  The search system looks for the exact words we typed. 

Think about it -- To do a thorough search by keyword, you would need to think of all the words an author might use to express a topic -- for example, teenager* instead of adolescen* . With this even broader search, the results would be overwhelming, and not all of the records would be relevant. 

A more precise approach might be to use subject headings, or descriptors.  One way to choose subject headings is to view some of the records from a keyword search, identify the most relevant records, and then look at the subject headings that were assigned to those relevant records. 

The following record shows the title and subject headings for one relevant record from the CINAHL keyword search above. After viewing these subject headings, you might want to conduct a search for Adolescence and Diabetes Mellitus and Ambulatory Care -- all limited to the SU (Subject) field.

Similarly, in the LIBRARY CATALOG, we might perform a keyword search for aids and prevention.  Because the search system looks for the exact words we typed, it might retrieve the following books:

• AIDS: Prevention Through Education
• First Aids for Stutterers: Practical Steps for Prevention and Treatment of Stuttering 

The first book is relevant to our information need, but the second is not. 

Again, we can obtain more precise results by using subject headings instead of keywords.  We can pick a relevant record from our keyword search and look at the subject headings in that record to identify a good subject heading to use.

The following record shows the title and subject headings for one relevant record from the library catalog keyword search above. You could click on any of these Subject links to retrieve other books relevant to your needs.

Next:  Subject Headings