IS KEYWORD SEARCHING THE ANSWER

This study looks at three aspects of keyword searching to see if defau lting to keyword searches might serve as a solution to the problems pe ople have with subject searches in online public access catalogs (OPAC s). It investigates whether keyword searching produces useful results, if people who use keyword searches to find information on a subject s ay they are satisfied with the results, and how keyword searching and controlled vocabulary searching are offered and explained in currently available OPAC interfaces. The conclusion is that both keyword and co ntrolled vocabulary searching ought to be easily available in an OPAC, and that improvements need to be made in explanations and help offere d to subject searchers.