Keyword searching is the most flexible way to start your search. Using natural language and words or phrases, keyword searching allows you to search all the fields of a catalog record (author, title, subjects, contents, notes, etc.). If you are using a database or the Web, keyword searching looks for the occurrence of your word(s) or phrase anywhere in the database documents or Web pages. Searching for smoking would retrieve all records containing the term smoking. The search will not only find smoking in the titles fields but also in the subject area of an item's record, in the table of contents, in the abstract or summary.

Also, keyword searching allows you to combine more than one topic in a search, for example, "tobacco" and "advertising," "depression" and "teenagers."