Subject heading searching Every item in the catalog is given a subject heading to describe it. Remember, these are given by librarians and they need to have a relationship with other headings in the catalog. The Catalog requires librarians to be very specific and to offer definitions and explanations of terms. By first doing a keyword search and then clicking on the subject heading of a record you like, you will be able to find additional research material. The most important thing to remember that there are different indexes for different subject areas.
Indexes have a long history in libraries.
You will remember that for each year of articles you needed to look at another bound volume. You would then need to see if your library had the journal and track it down to see if you would find it useful. This is changing. With the computer revolution, especially the web, more information is available. Instead of just citations, you may find an abstract of the article to help you gauge whether this will be a useful resource.