What is a subject heading and thesaurus in databases?
Answer
Subject heading: A standardized term used to describe a general concept. Catalogers assign books and articles between 1 and 5 subject headings, or descriptors. Subject headings can be an effective way to find books/articles about a topic, rather than those that just mention a topic. Usually, you can find subject headings after clicking on the title of the book/article to go into the "record." For some records, you can scroll until the subject headings appear, or look for tabs/headings like "View Description".
Subject headings are usually hyperlinked and clicking on the link will show you all items "tagged" with that subject heading.
Example from the Library Catalog:
Thesaurus: A list of all the subject headings used by a particular database or catalog. Search the thesaurus to find the most relevant subject headings for your topic and to add to your search.
Example:
Once in the thesaurus, look for your keyword to see how the system categorizes the keyword as a subject heading, and to see related subject headings. These subject headings can be added to your search to bring up articles "tagged" with the subject heading(s).
