Translating these ideas into words or terms allow the searcher to apply the critical thinking skills of reasoning and evaluating. It consists of typing words into the search box and allowing the computer to search the entire database to locate records in which these words are contained. The number of items retrieved in this type of broad search can be very large depending on the topic and includes many irrelevant items. A keyword is best when there is no subject heading or descriptor for the topic, the subject heading is too vague or general, the topic being searched is too new or the databases being searched does not have subject or descriptor field. These will be found in a printed Thesaurus or online embedded within the database itself.
Searchers can generally retrieve all the items on a topic by using one term.
From this statement, identify the main ideas or concepts. For each concept or idea, brainstorm relevant keywords or phrases to use in the search. Search these keywords or use them to identify descriptors in the database thesaurus. The affect of peer pressure on teen drug use. These keywords can be searched or can be matched with descriptors to be searched.