FIND THE RIGHT SEARCH TERM

Once you have determined which database is appropriate for your subject, the next step is to develop an effective search strategy.
  

There are two basic ways to communicate with a database:  controlled vocabulary and keyword searching.
  

Controlled vocabulary searching uses designated subject headings or descriptors, listed in a database thesaurus, to index terms and concepts.  Thesauri identify related subject headings and show their relationships to one another.  Use of controlled vocabulary helps the searcher to create an efficient and focused search.

 

Keyword searching allows the searcher to use any words or terms and looks for these terms in multiple fields throughout the database.  Keyword searching often yields a high number of results.  However, the relevancy or integrity of the results can vary.  There is no distinction between records where a keyword is found only once and records where a keyword is found many times.  Some terms have multiple meanings and can provide "garbage" results when used as a keyword term.  In some databases, keyword phrase searching and connecting keywords with AND will retrieve different results.
 

Both controlled vocabulary and keyword searching strategies can produce good results. It is important to know that you can try both strategies when searching a database.
  

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