RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
To choose keywords, consider:
• the main subject
• related subject(s)
• the group of people that the material describes, such as street children, women,
community health workers
• potential target audience
• the focus or purpose, such as research, planning, evaluation or training.
If you are using a computer database, or have sufficient space for extra catalogue
cards, you could also include keywords to indicate the type of language, such as
technical or non-technical.
5.3.3 How to produce a keywords list
To produce a keywords list for your resource centre:
1. List key terms (words or short phrases) that describe the main subject areas
covered by the resource centre.
2. Add terms that describe more general and less common subject areas.
3. Explain any confusing terms in ‘scope notes’ (notes on the meaning of a
keyword, and how it should be used).
4. Add cross-reference notes (notes indicating additional keywords that could be
used to describe related subjects, or keywords to use if the term is not a
keyword).
You can see examples of scope notes and cross-reference notes in the sample of
Healthlink Worldwide’s Keywords List in Section 5.3.4.
Getting things right with a ‘home-made’ keywords list is not always easy. You may
need to add new terms to the list if you cannot find a term that describes the
material that you are cataloguing.
When first developing a list, it is sensible to review the terms regularly. Once the list
is established, review additions and possible changes about once a year.
5.3.4 Sample of Healthlink Worldwide Keywords List
The Healthlink Worldwide Keywords List is a list of all the terms used in the
Healthlink Worldwide bibliographic database.
The list is divided into two columns. The left-hand column lists, in alphabetical
order, the keywords to use (in bold capital letters) and terms not to be used as
keywords (in lower case letters). The right-hand column shows keywords to use (in
capital letters) instead of the terms that should not be used. It also includes notes on
how and when to use keywords, and related keywords (in capital letters).
10 SECTION 5: ORGANISING THE INFORMATION