Research help

Keywords (also called search terms) are words that describe your research topic. Keywords are chosen by you. Keyword searching is how you search in Google and Bing. You think of important words or phrases, type them into a search box, and get results.

• Pros: Easy.
• Cons: Not very precise. Results in a lot of irrelevant and useless search results.

Subjects (also called controlled vocabulary) are words that an article has been tagged with because the article is mostly about those subjects. Subjects are a quick way to find the most relevant articles on a topic, but you have to be careful because the only place the database searches for those words is in that Subject field. If you don't have the right words to search with, you'll get no results. You find Subjects listed in articles that are relevant to your topic, type them into a search box, change the "field to search" to Subject, and get results.

• Pros: Results in relevant, topic-specific results. You will see way fewer irrelevant or useless results.
• Cons: Harder - subjects may not be phrases you would think of off the top of your head.

In CCC Library's catalog

1. Go to CCC Library's catalog Advanced Search.
2. Perform a normal search, using words/phrases that describe your topic.
3. Browse through your search results; choose 2 or 3 hits that are relevant.
4. Open the item record and look for words under the heading "LCSH and PCI subjects"
5. Write down any relevant terms.
6. Redo your search using those terms; change the "Any field" dropdown menu to "Subject."

In CCC Library databases

Option 1

1. Find a good article.
2. Identify "Subjects" listed in the article that are relevant to your topic.
3. Perform a new using those terms; change the "Select a Field" dropdown menu to "Subject Terms."

Option 2

1. Look to see if the database has an online thesaurus to browse for subjects that match your topic. Usually these options will be at the top of the database search screen or under the Help section.
2. Write down any relevant terms.
3. Redo your search using those terms; change the "Select a Field" dropdown menu to "Subject Terms."
   • Here's an example from EBSCO:

Use these three powerful little words - called Boolean operators - to create better searches.

What are Boolean operators?

Boolean operators are words that we use to link two or more keywords while searching. Linking your keywords with the words AND, OR, and NOT help to expand or narrow the results you get while searching.

AND

• AND tells the catalog or database you are searching in that you are requiring both terms to be in your results. Linking two keywords with the word AND ensures that all of your search results have keyword #1 AND keyword #2.
• Use this Boolean operator when you are comparing, contrasting, or otherwise relating two keywords!
• Example: "peanut butter"  AND jelly 
  • Will only show me results that contain both peanut butter AND jelly, because I want both of them.

OR

• OR tells the catalog or database you are searching in that you are okay with either keyword (or both keywords) appearing in your search results. Linking two keywords with the word OR ensure that all results with have either keyword #1 OR keyword #2 OR both.
• Use this operator to link synonyms (words that mean the same thing). 
• Example: jelly OR jam
  • Will return results that include jelly, jam, and jelly and jam. This is because these words are interchangeable and I'm okay with seeing results with either word.

NOT

• NOT  tells the catalog or database you are searching in that you only want results containing one keyword, but NOT the other. Linking two keywords with the word NOT will only return results containing keyword #1 but NOT keyword #2.
• Use this Boolean operator when you have noticed that searching for keyword #1 also returns results about keyword #2, but that is not what you are looking for.
• Example: jelly NOT grape
  • Will return results that contain jelly, but NOT results that contain grape, because I'm not looking for information on grape jelly.