Search Technique - Page One

Search Technique

Subject Searching

One of the most useful database fields is the Subject, or Descriptor, field. This field is valuable because it provides consistency and is useful for locating materials that cover the same topic. What follows is a discussion on how to use that field efficiently for retrieving articles if your research assignment is too complex for a simple search. Nearly all databases have a Subject field, so the principles outlined in the next few pages are transferrable to nearly every research database owned by Calvin's library.

Suppose you are writing a research paper on The effects of e-mail on relationships. After selecting the database Sociological Abstracts, you would perform a search to retrieve relevant citations or full-text articles. The illustration below contains both a simple (obvious) search and a complex search.

Sociological Abstracts search.

The first search is a simple search, using obvious search terms from the research topic. The second search is more complex, using subject words and phrases. Notice a few differences. First, phrases are bracketed by quotation marks. This tells the system to look for exactly that phrase. Second, notice that the field box now reads Subject. The system will look only for search terms in that field, ignoring that term on all the other fields. Third, notice the use of or. This is a Boolean operator that will be discussed shortly. Finally, notice the discussion of the results. The simple search retrieved more records, but overall they were of inferior quality. The complex search was a bit more difficult to create, but it provided many more useful sources. Two questions you might have after seeing this example will be discussed on the following pages.

Where did the words and phrases in the second illustration come from?
How do I identify appropriate subjects?

If you encounter technical errors, contact computing@calvin.edu.