History of Medicine
FAQ
IndexCat -- Subject Term Searches and Retrieval
Question: Why are some Index-Catalogue subject headings different for the same topic?
Answer:
Subject vocabulary in the Index-Catalogue collection is not necessarily consistent for headings or format. It reflects the assigned headings from the printed Index-Catalogue and at this time, there is no normalization between series. For this reason, IndexCat provides Keyword searches to Subject terms rather than controlled phrase searches.
Example 1:
- Series 1: Small-pox
- Search as two words. Enter the phrase in Quick search with double quotes: "small pox"
- Series 2-5: Smallpox
- Search as 1 word
Search both formats in Advanced search using Boolean OR and use the 'All of These' option for small pox format.
Example 2:
Series 1: Lists no citations with the term 'anthrax'. 'Anthrax' is a "see" reference to other terms used to index citations: Carbuncle, Charbon, and Pustule (Malignant)
Series 2-5: Lists citations directly under 'anthrax' and also gives you other related terms.
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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/icsubjectheadings.html
