7.3: Subject Heading Searching

One precision searching technique may be helpful in databases that allow it, and that’s subject heading searching. Subject heading searching can be much more precise than keyword searching because you are sure to retrieve only your intended concept.

Subject searching is helpful in situations such as:

• There are multiple terms for the same topic you’re interested in (example: cats and felines).
• There are multiple meanings for the same word (example: cookie the food and cookie the computer term).
• There are terms used by professionals and terms used by the general public, including slang or shortened terms (example: flu and influenza).

Here’s how it works:

Database creators work with a defined list of subject headings, which is sometimes called a controlled vocabulary. That means the creators have defined which subject terms are acceptable and assigned only those words to the items it contains. The resulting list of terms is often referred to as a thesaurus. When done thoroughly, a thesaurus will not only list acceptable subject headings, but will also indicate related terms, broader terms and narrower terms for a concept.

Tip: Finding Useful Subject Headings

Try this strategy to find useful subject headings. Remember it by thinking of the letters KISS:

• Keyword-search your topic.
• Identify a relevant item from the results.
• Select subject terms relevant to your topic from that item’s subject heading.
• Search using these subject terms. (Some resources will allow you to simply click on those subject terms to perform a search. Others may require you to copy/paste a subject term[s] into a search box and choose a subject field.)

Activity: Searching Specialized Databases

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Records and Fields

The information researchers usually see first after searching a database is the “records” for items contained in the database that also match what was asked for by the search.

Each record describes an item that can be retrieved and gives you enough information so that, hopefully, you can decide whether it should meet your information need. The descriptions are in categories that provide different types of information about the item. These categories are called “fields.” Some fields may be empty of information for some items, and the fields that are available depend on the type of database.

Example: Database Fields

A bibliographic database describes items such as articles, books, conference papers, etc. Common fields found in bibliographic database records are:

• Author.
• Title (of book, article, etc.).
• Source title (journal title, conference name, etc.).
• Date.
• Volume/issue.
• Pages.
• Abstract.
• Descriptive or subject terms.

In contrast, a product database record might contain the following fields:

• Product Name.
• Product Code number.
• Color.
• Price.
• Amount in Stock.