Keyword Search vs. Subject Searching.

The next way to search the HELIN Catalog is by Subject Searching. Keyword Searching and Subject Searching each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

We have already learned that all of the books in this library are assigned a call number that is based on the Library of Congress Classification. In addition to this call number classification, each item in the library is assigned a number of Library of Congress Subject Headings that are used to describe the subject or topic of that item. By identifying the proper subject heading, you should be able to find all books in the HELIN system on a particular topic. Using Subject to search these subject headings can be a very powerful way of limiting the results of your search to the specific topics that you are interested in.

Sometimes you do not know the Library of Congress Subject headings for your topic. In this case it can help to try a Keyword Search. Searching in this way is like using a search engine on the Internet. It searches all of the fields at once, including title, subject and notes - and lists all the records which contain that keyword. You may get more records, but they may not be as relevant to your topic. The Keyword can lead you to the Subject of books related to your topic, or you can try a Subject Search from the beginning.

continue . . .