Supplies needed:

A class full of  able bodied participants

Description:

Here’s a simple way to actively demonstrate the difference between a keyword and a subject heading.  

Ask your students to imagine, for example, they are perhaps going through a mid-life crisis and are thinking of trading in their old reliable Honda for a Jeep.  They are to imagine they are to find information on Jeeps before they make the big purchase.  

Ask them to think of the phone book as a large database or library catalog.  Hand the phone book to a student and ask them to look up the word “Jeep” in the yellow pages.  Express dismay when the student doesn’t find that word, then slyly suggest looking under “Cars”.  Act surprised when the student yet again doesn’t find any information, but instead finds a “see Automobiles” reference.  

Flip to the section on Automobiles and explain that Verizon uses specific vocabulary to describe all the information in their “database” and that trying to “guess” which subject heading they may have used can be a daunting task  

Time needed in class:  5 minutes

Learning Outcomes:  addresses Information Literacy Standard # 2