FYS 120E: Taking the Pulse of Careers in Healthcare

Keywords are search terms you identify that should describe as precisely as possible the object you're researching. Most of you will find a few books relevant to your object by searching with one or two keywords. 

Subject headings are standardized terms that librarians assign to a book to indicate what it is about. Subject headings are especially useful if your keywords searches are returning too many results, if your object has multiple names or related terms, or if you are searching for contextual sources.

As explained in the video below, first try searching with keywords and then using subject headings to refine or expand your search or to discover related terms. Here are two examples that show the relationships between keywords and subject headings: