This accomplishes two things. First, you can search many libraries rapidly from your home, office or computer lab. Second, you are exposed to a wider range of resources. When researching a topic, you will receive a more complete picture of the available information on your subject and not one limited to those items owned by the local libraries to which you have access. The concepts of subject and keyword searching were introduced earlier and will be with us for the remainder of the quarter.
Online catalogs have subject headings for every item included in their system.
Catalogers rely on a sophisticated system of rules to ensure that items with similar subjects receive similar subject headings. This means you will retrieve all the items on your particular topic even though you may have used different search terms. For example, you may want to research the topic of the death penalty. Generally, keyword searching locates words in author, title, subject and note fields. A keyword search will retrieve many more items than a subject search, however, they will generally not all be relevant.