Database driven web pages - where to get "subject headdings"

[Masters, Gary E]

I am also looking at databases to drive web pages.  Once everything is in a
database, there ought to be several things to help manage it that can not be
done with other systems.  Perhaps we can share some here as we learn what
works and what does not.  

My solution for a web page (intranet) that has many links was to build it on
a Cold Fusion database.  We will have one database of all types of journals
and another of links.  Before I can turn it over to the programmer, I have
been trying to come up with a list of "descriptors" that can be used to
search and organize the links.  Since our Center is for medical devices and
radiological health we need  medicine, business and the hard sciences.  What
looked like an afternoon's work has started to eat up my schedule when I get
into things like "bioengineering, biochemistry, biotechnology or something
to combine or all three or more?"  We want to keep it to 50 or less terms
that we can display in a table.  Can someone suggest a place that has done
this or a list that I can beg or borrow?


Thanks,

Gary


Gary E. Masters
Librarian (Systems)
CDRH - FDA
(301) 827-6893