The Subject Guide lists all indexed subjects in which the words you searched for occur. The Subject Guide, with its hyperlinked terms, is a powerful search tool that lets you easily expand or narrow your search or take it in a different but related direction simply by selecting terms. Each time you click on a term, search results for the term you selected will be displayed.
The Subject Guide appears in full-page view when you launch a search from the Subject Guide Search page. Note: You can view the Subjects found in your current search results using the Search sidebar and view Related Subjects from the document display page, also in the Search sidebar. Please refer to the "Using the Search Sidebar" Help page for details.
The remainder of this page describes the functionality of the full-page view that is displayed as part of a Subject Guide search.
Entries are displayed in groups and in alphabetical order within each group. The first group shows the entries in which your search word(s) comes first. Next are the entries in which your word(s) comes second, and so on.
The Previous and Next arrow icons above the list and repeated at the bottom let you go backward or forward, respectively, one page at a time. You may enter a term directly in the input box and click Go to "jump" to that term.
Subject terms are hyperlinked, and clicking a term performs a Subject Search and displays a results list. The Results column to the right displays the number of "hits," so you'll know before you select a subject term the number of results to expect.
Some Subject Guide entries do not have a direct link to results but are followed by one or more entries that start with "See" followed by a hyperlinked subject term. The Subject Guide's thesaurus associates phrases that aren't actually indexed as subjects with subject headings that are indexed, so that even if what you type isn't in the index you'll be shown equivalent entries.
For example, a search for "fish farming" might produce a Subject Guide entry of "See Aquaculture." "Aquaculture" is how "fish farming" is actually indexed in the database.
By establishing equivalent subjects, the system creates more flexibility for you to do subject searches. You don't have to know exactly how a subject is indexed to find references to material about the subject.
Subdivisions take a broad or complex subject and break it into subheadings grouped under the tabs of Topics, Locations, and Dates (use the Display drop-down menu to make a selection; choices are dynamic and may not always be available in every case). Selecting a Subdivisions link focuses your search and lets you see a manageable set of results for a subject that might lead to hundreds or even thousands of references. Subdivisions let you concentrate on those aspects of a subject that are most meaningful to you.
For example, the main subject "Renaissance" may have dozens of subdivisions, such as "Analysis," "Bibliography," "Criticism and Interpretation," and "Religious Aspects." Click a hyperlinked subject to see results associated with that subdivision.
Related subjects are just what they sound like: subjects that aren't directly about what you searched for but are related in some way. Selecting a Related subjects link will display terms arranged alphabetically in the categories of Broader, Narrower, and Related terms (use the Display drop-down menu to make a selection; choices are dynamic and may not always be available in every case).
Related subjects lead to additional documents that might be of interest. For example, under the subject "Metalworking," you might find related subjects such as "Manufacturing" (a broader subject term), "Forging" (a narrower term), and "Metallurgy" (a related term).
Click a hyperlinked subject to see search results for the selected term.
If a subject search fails, the search system displays an alphabetical list of words from indexed subjects allowing you to choose a word. This is especially helpful if you've inadvertently misspelled a word.
For example, if you search for "schitzophrenia," there won't be any matches. On the list of possibilities, you should see the word schizophrenia, which is the correct spelling.
The first word in the list alphabetically follows the word you typed. You might need to move backward or forward one or more pages to find the word you want.
If none of the listed subjects is appropriate, go back to the search page and try again. If you're not sure of a spelling, you can use one or more wildcards to replace parts of words. Don't forget to use the online Dictionary. And you can also try your term as Basic Search and the system will offer one or more "Did You Mean" choices if it can't understand the word you typed.