Writing 100 (Spring 2025, Pravin)

Using Subject Terms to Search in Databases

Recommendations:

• Start with keywords in your database search.
• Leverage subject terms IF they are available in the databases.

Notes:

• Subject terms can be more effective (targeted); yet, more limiting at the same time!
• Subject terms may not be applied to all formats or records depending on the database.
• Some search tools have GREAT subjects, some don't have any!

Example: Record from UC Library Search

Marr, Bernard, and Matt Ward. Artificial Intelligence in practice : How 50 successful companies used artificial Intelligence to solve problems. 1st edition. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley, 2019.

How to Find Subject Headings

The controlled vocabulary of a database is the official subject headings for the database. Controlled vocabulary will vary depending on the discipline. Even when the word is the same in multiple disciplines, context will vary. For example, "stress" means one thing to a psychologist (anxiety, depression) and something else entirely to an engineer (metal fatigue, weight load). The controlled vocabulary of the database will vary depending on the subjects the database covers.

And how do you find the controlled vocabulary?

1. Look for a thesaurus (or a glossary, or a list of subject terms)

2. Look at the metadata in the database records