Remember the chicken recipe at the beginning of this section and the hypothetical indexing job later on? You may have been wondering about the importance of understanding the terms: database; access point; field; record; subject headings; descriptors; keywords; index and controlled volcabulary. Once you understand these concepts, you will have a much easier time doing research online. Let's see how you can use these concepts. Online Research & Controlled Vocabulary
You are already very familiar with the concept of controlled vocabulary; you may have even used it today. The yellow pages of a given phone book use a form of controlled vocabulary. When you look up "lawyers," the notation under the word lawyers tells you to "see attorneys" (or vice versa); when you look up cars, you are directed to "see automobiles" (or vice versa). Each phone company has decided on a controlled vocabulary for its phone book and has determined which word they will use to describe a particular subject.
When an indexer receives an article to index, he/she does not randomly select terms, but rather selects from an approved list for the database. The approved list (called the thesaurus) contains the acceptable terminology, called controlled vocabulary, from which to choose labeling terms. Each database may have a unique thesaurus or use the Library of Congress Subject Headings. (We will talk about these later.)
Imagine that your sociology professor assigns a paper on the issues facing the elderly. You go to look up information under "elderly" or "senior citizens" and find virtually nothing. Now, you KNOW that there must be a great deal of information on this topic; you just must be using the wrong terms when looking up the subject. You then look up the database's controlled vocabulary (thesaurus) and find that for "elderly" and "senior citizen" the appropriate term is "aged". You now go back to your search and find hundreds of records ("hits"). Each database may have its own thesaurus. It will save you much time and frustration if you start your search looking for the correct term in the correct thesaurus, if one is available.
