Begin Your Research

What are keywords?

Keyword searching is the most common form of online searching and should be used when you need to know what materials the library or database contains on a specific topic. You should search by keyword if you are unsure about the author or title of an item. Keywords are significant words used to describe information in a catalog, database, or search engine. The keywords you choose for searching greatly impact how much relevant information is retrieved. Keyword searches are especially useful when your topic combines two or more concepts.

Developing keywords.

Since keywords are a very important piece of research, creating a list of these words or phrases is equally important to help you in your search. Normally, your keywords will be concepts or ideas that are related to your main topic. Please view the video below for more information on how to create keywords.