When you don't know much about a topic, a keyword search is usually the best way to start.

KEYWORDS:

• describe the main concepts of a topic, 
  
  
• used in combination, can distinguish your topic from others,
  
  
• are the words one uses to write about or discuss a topic,

• can be found in titles, abstracts, subject headings, and content notes.

IDENTIFYING KEYWORDS

1. State your topic in a one-sentence phrase or question.
2. Identify the important concepts in your phrase or question.
3. For each concept make a list of keywords , their synonyms, and other related words.

An example of this process:

1. the use of color in the "Madonna" 
(T his is the topic phrase - a clear statement of what the researcher needs to know.)

If you need help putting your topic into a statement or question, ask a librarianor your instructor.

2. Important concepts from the statement:
use     color     madonna

3. From concepts to keywords

Keyword phrases are put in quotes ("").

You have a greater probability of finding material related to your topic when you use more keywords in your search.  However, using more keywords also decreases the probability you will find all relevant materials.
 
On the other hand, using fewer keywords increases the number of items found and, thus, the amount of time you spend scanning item records to see if they are sufficiently related to your topic.

Your goal is to find the combination of keywords which returns a list of items which is short enough to make efficient use of your time, but long enough to be adequate for your purposes. You may need to use more than one combination of keywords because, even given the optimal set of keywords, there may be some documents which are relevant to your topic whose records do not contain all the topic keywords.

To ask a librarian about Internet sources, you can:
stop by the Reference Desk in the University Library, call 742-2236
or (toll free) 1-888-270-3369, or email/chat via Ask a Librarianonline service.

TTU Libraries are not responsible for the content of external sources. For questions about this page, contact Jon Hufford, Coordinator for Information Literacy. [v] (806) 742-2238 X277 [f] (806) 742-1964 [e]

This page last modified on 17 Oct 2006, 13:44.