Who Needs Controlled Vocabulary
Raya Fidel · Special libraries · 1992
Whenever they search a database, how do searchers decide whether to use a descriptor, a textword, or both ? Observation of a total of 281 real-life searches performed by 47 professional searchers shows that although some searchers preferred descriptors and others textwords, the decision about which type to use depended on each specific situation. These analyses revealed general rules that explain the selection of search terms.