Subject Searching

Subject searching is more precise than keyword searching because rather than looking for your search terms anywhere in the record (all fields), the database will only look for your terms in the assigned subject heading field for the record. 

The best strategy for locating subject headings for your topic is to start by doing a keyword search, then click on a relevant book  from the search results, and look in the subject field for that book to get a list of related subjects to search.   Click on the subject headings to see a list of books with that subject heading. 

Another option, is to use the Advanced search to limit your search to only the subject field but this requires you knowing what subject headings are used by the catalog to describe your topic. Librarians use the Library of Congress subject headings to catalog books and assign subjects.