Library Tip: Subject Headings

Subject Headings

Do you know how to search the MORRIS Law Library catalog using Subject Headings?  Do you know what a Subject Heading is?  Subject Headings point you to all the books in the library that have been assigned a certain, fixed phrase.  A Subject Heading search almost always produces more relevant results than keyword searching.



Let’s say you run a keyword search for “Artificial Intelligence”. You find a book that looks promising. The catalog record for that book should contain Subject Headings, an example appears below.





Clicking on one of those subjects provides a list of subject headings which might be relevant and how many items in our library have that subject applied to them. You can click on any of the subjects to get a list of items.















You can also search by Subject. In MORRIS, click on the “Subject” radio button and begin your search.  Type a search term, such as “Contracts,” or “Torts” to see it and related subject headings. 







Once you have noted useful terms, click on one that seems promising, or just click Start Over at top left and begin another subject search with your term and the jurisdiction, such as “Contracts United States.” 



Of course you can always seek the assistance of our Research & Instruction Librarians for search help.

 

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Warm regards,  

Lillian Goldman Law Library

lawlib.admin@yale.edu