Module 2: Subject Searching

Peirce College Information Literacy Tutorial

Most periodical indexes organize their records using a list of approved subject headings. This allows you to find all the articles about your topic under one term.

How do you find the approved subject headings? Some indexes provide a list of subject headings. This list is called a subject guide or a thesaurus. If you search for a word that is not in the index, it may suggest an approved subject heading you could use.

Thesaurus

In the example above, there are 1,712 articles about the Internet in this database. If you looked for articles using the words Information Superhighway, this database would direct you to use the subject heading Internet.

A thesaurus or subject guide is a list of selected words or concepts for a particular database. A thesaurus is used to identify descriptors or subject headings specific to the database being searched.

Subject heading are agreed upon words/phrases (also referred to as controlled vocabulary) used to describe and define a concept or thing. Library catalogs, indexes and electronic databases all make use of controlled vocabulary to provide consistent access to books, articles and other material. Subject headings can be words or phrases that designate a particular area of interest under which all material dealing with that area are entered in an index or library catalog. In order to conduct a successful and efficient subject search in the library's catalog or in an article database it is necessary to know the predefined subject heading.