Subject Searching in the Catalog

You'd think you could enter any keyword as a Subject search in the Library catalog. However, the Subject search uses special terms to organize books by subject. These are called Library of Congress and MEdical Subject Headings, LCSH or MESH. If you enter any keywords as a Subject search, you may not get much back. For example:

If you entered a subject search for solar panels you would get zero hits! Search using the LC Subject Headings Solar Cells or Solar Collectors, which are official subject headings you'd find that the library has more than 20 items. We call this "controlled vocabulary."

Sometimes NOTES and SEE ALSO options will lead you to other subjects to try.

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Last modified: Aug 03, 2006, 13:34 EDT