Keyword vs. Subject

What are subject headings?

As in the Library Catalog, many databases use a unique set of subject headings (sometimes also call descriptors) specific to that particular database. They describe the content of items, bringing together records with varied terminology that are actually about the same topic. Look for an online thesaurus or subject search or controlled vocabulary to help choose subject headings.

Engineering Village Controlled Vocabulary limit

Keywords	Subjects
Natural language search terms describe a topic	"Controlled vocabulary" assigned by people and used to describe the content of an item (book, journal article) described in a database
Flexible searching - terms may be combined in many ways	Structured searching - knowing how to use and search for the controlled vocabulary is essential
Keywords may be found anywhere within a record. For example a keyword search for Carson City may find items published in Carson City, items about Carson City or items by the author Carson.	Subjects are found only within Subject heading fields. For example: searching for Carson City as a subject will retrieve items that provide significant amounts of information about Carson City.
May yield too many or too few results	If too many results, use subheadings to focus on one aspect of the broader subject
May yield irrelevant results	Results are relevant to topic

Some content taken from MIT's Information Navigator pages.

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Last modified: Aug 06, 2008, 14:41 EDT