Use the SUBJECT search when you want to find out what the library owns on a particular topic. This search uses controlled vocabulary. A library cataloger examines materials to be added to the catalog and decides which terms from the subject thesaurus (list of subjects) are appropriate for each item.
Most catalog records use subject terms from the Library of Congress (LC) thesaurus. Those owned by the OSU Health Sciences Library use a special thesaurus called MESH (Medical Subject Headings). You can use either one to search in the OSU Library Catalog.
Subject terms can range from the general to the very specific.
Example (general): United States History
Example (specific): United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Aerial operations
The illustration below shows results from a SUBJECT search for: bipolar disorder
In this case, the result is a cross-reference (sometimes called a "See" reference). These may be shown when the subject term you enter does not match the term used in the thesaurus to represent that concept. The cross-reference includes a link for the preferred term. Click on it to continue your SUBJECT search using the new term.
The KEYWORD search is very flexible and can be used effectively when you are not quite sure which controlled vocabulary subject terms pertain to your topic. Since this search finds your search terms in various parts or fields of the catalog record (author, publisher, title, subjects, notes), you may get a large set of search results, and only some of them will be relevant.
The illustration below shows the catalog's ADVANCED KEYWORD search form. Unlike other catalog searches, you can pre-limit an ADVANCED KEYWORD search before running it by selecting from the various pull-down lists on the page:
Note that to search for words as an exact phrase (that is, the words are next to each other, in the order shown) you must enclose the phrase in quotation marks. The illustration shows other ways to combine your search terms using various Boolean operators (such as AND, OR, AND NOT) and proximity operators (NEAR, etc.).
Sorting Results:
Both the KEYWORD and ADVANCED KEYWORD searches can be sorted in various ways. Select from the drop-down list to sort results by:
Ranking or sorting by relevance will bring the best results to the top. Results will appear in up to 5 groups (most relevant, highly relevant, very relevant, relevant, other relevant).
Click on this link to open a new window where you can practice the following search: OSU Library Catalog