Finding and Using the Magic Words: Keywords, Thesauri, and Free Text Search

摘要

A major characteristic that distinguishes information professionals from casual Web searchers is our determination to find the best, most appropriate search terms. We sometimes construct elaborate search strategies to obtain highly relevant, timely, and accurate information. We don't put a couple of words in a search box and trust that the top 10 results will fulfill our information need. In fact, information professionals consider the "magic words" of controlled vocabularies to be our ace in the hole. We rely on these to find information that our clients can't, and we revel in their astonished looks when we succeed where they failed.