A. Bibliographic Information
Author- Borman, Kathryn M
Schneider, Barbara
Title-The adolescent years : social influences and educational challenges
Edition- Ninety-seventh Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 0077-5762 ; pt. 1
Place of publication- Chicago
Publisher- University of Chicago Press
Date of publication- 1998
Additional Information
Location- Book Stacks, Concord Reference
Call Numbers- LB5 .N25 97-1 , LB5 .N25 97-1
Status- ON THE SHELF
Subject Headings
Adolescence
Education, Secondary -- United States
Educational sociology
I choose educational sociology because it was the most relevant subject to my topic. The subject heading was educational sociology and it gave me 249 entries. After examining, I had more results with the subject heading than the keyword search. I had only one result for the keyword search compared to the subject heading. I personally think that the keyword search was more relevant than some of the subject heading results. One of the results was the same single result I received on the keyword search. The first few results for the subject heading were relevant to my topic but I think the keyword search result was more on target. I think the reasons being that the results for the subject heading were not very clear. They did not really give much information on what the particular result was about and the keyword search result gave exact material presented in the book.
B. The difference between a keyword search and a subject heading search is that when one does the keyword search it broadens the topic within the keywords used whereas the subject heading narrows the given results to even narrower results to have more in depth results withing the keyword used for the starting search.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think some of your posting got lost.
ReplyDeleteWell, here it is--great!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure of the keywords you used to begin, but you are still working in a very general way. Educational sociology is such a broad topic that you are bound to have many results from a subject heading search as well as a keyword search.
While you may think that keyword searches are more relevant, you have defined subject headings as being narrower, which I suspect you don't really believe, but perhaps if you understand how subject headings are created, you will understand how they can be one of the most useful elements of the catalog.
1. Unlike keywords, which are simply a machine match-up of the string of characters you input to the same string of characters in the record, subject headings are a pre-set, prescribed set of headings, constructed by human beings to reflect the most effective way of expressing a subject to ensure that materials on the subject are gathered together under that one heading.
2. All books are read by a human being, usually a librarian. The librarian determines the subject and looks up the correct form of the subject heading or headings in the Library of Congress Subject Heading list. You can view the 5 volume set of LC subject headings at the reference desk. When you're in the library for this week's assignment, why don't you stop by the reference desk and ask the librarian there to show them to you. That will make all this more concrete.
With this human intervention and intellectual application, subject headings are the best option for ensuring that you get all the materials on a particular subject.
The key to this, however, is that you really hone in on a subject heading that is going to give you the specificity that you need. When you do a keyword search, you need to pick very carefully from among the results. If there is really something that applies, you want to know what else is in the catalog that's got the same structured subject heading. You may have found a book that did that for you, but I suspect there might be another one that has a more specific heading that would really show you the value of subject headings more directly.
I hope this is clear.