Library Home » Research 101 Home » Searching

Field Searching

Most databases and search engines search "words anywhere" or "keywords" automatically unless you select another type of search.

Keyword searching finds matches for your terms in any field of a record or any part of a webpage, so you typically retrieve more information with less precision.

In addition to keyword searching databases and search engines often allow searching in specific fields such as author, title, URL, or subject and will sometimes refer to this as "advanced", or "expert" searching. These searches typically retrieve less information with more precision.

For example

If you are a detective and the only clues you have for a missing persons case are the words "red," "blue," and "green," these people could be a match. This is keyword searching. RED + BLUE + GREEN	If instead you knew your person had a red tie, blue shirt, and a green beret, you have a better chance of finding the right person. This is field searching. Tie=RED, Shirt=BLUE, Beret=GREEN

Keyword anywhere vs field searching

We recommend keyword searching when you are unsure of the exact subject heading, if you're doing a large original research project, or if you're looking for a rare or unique term (e.g., Eminem). Keyword searching helps you to find anything that mentions a topic and can also be an effective strategy for identifying subject terms from a few relevant records to prepare for a subject field search later.

Field searching is useful when you need more precision in your search results. For example, you want a book by Sandra Cisneros (search in author field) but not about Sandra Cisneros (search in subject field).

Why do a field search?

If you were searching for information about corruption in immigration, which of the following searches returns a more relevant record? Why?

corruption and immigration