Library glossary

Glossary of Library Terms

Glossary of Library Terms

Abstract : A brief, objective representation of the essential content of a book, article, speech, report, dissertation, patent, standard, or other work, presenting the main points in the same order as the original but having no independent literary value. Annotation: A note that describes, explains, or evaluates; especially such a note added to an entry in a bibliography, reading list, or catalog. 2. Process of making such notes. Annotation is the end product of making such notes. Article: A brief work—generally between 1 and 35 pages in length—on a topic. Often published as part of a journal, magazine, or newspaper.

Glossary of Library Terms

Bibliography: A list containing citations to the resources used in writing a research paper or other document.Book stacks: Shelves in the library where materials—typically books—are stored. Books in the book stacks are normally arranged by call number. May be referred to simply as the “stacks.Boolean operator: A word—such as AND, OR, or NOT—that commands a computer to combine search terms. Helps to narrow (AND, NOT) or broaden (OR) searches.

Glossary of Library Terms

Call Number: A group of letters and/or numbers that identifies a specific item in a library and provides a way for organizing library collections. Catalog: A database (either online or on paper cards) listing and describing the books, journals, government documents, audiovisual and other materials held by a library. Various search terms allow you to look for items in the catalog. Check out: To borrow/rent/loan an item from a library for a fixed period of time. Our check-out period is of 2 weeks (renewable once). Items are checked out at the circulation desk. Citation: A reference to a book, magazine or journal article, or other work containing all the information necessary to identify and locate that work.

Glossary of Library Terms

Controlled vocabulary: Standardized terms used in searching a specific database. Copyright: Copyright laws protect intellectual property from misuse by other individuals. Ideas and information in print or electronic form are the property of the person who created them. Permission must be obtained to use copyrighted material. Copyrighted materials may be used for educational purposes if the fair-use guidelines are followed. Current Periodicals: The latest or most recent issues of a magazine or journal.

Glossary of Library Terms

Database: A collection of information stored in an electronic format that can be searched by a computer. Dissertation: An extended written treatment of a subject submitted by a graduate student as a requirement for a masters or doctorate degree. DOI (Acronym for Digital Object Identifier): It is a unique alphanumeric string assigned by the publisher to a digital object. Due date: The date by which you should return the items you have borrowed from the library.

Glossary of Library Terms

E-book (or Electronic book): An electronic version of a book that can be read on a computer or mobile device. Edition: Particular version of a book. Different editions are numbered to indicate a revision in content or presentation. Editor: A person or group responsible for compiling the writings of others into a single information source. Looking for information under its editor's name is one option in searching.

Glossary of Library Terms

Full-text: A complete electronic copy of a resource, usually an article, viewed on a computer display screen. The term "full-text" is often used to refer to the electronic version of an article or book that is also published in print.

Glossary of Library Terms

Glossary: An alphabetical list of terms specialized to a field of knowledge with definitions or explanations. It may be featured on scientific articles, books and other publications.

Glossary of Library Terms

Hold: A request by a user to a library that a book checked out to another person be saved for that user when it is returned. “Holds” can generally be placed on any regularly circulating library materials.

Glossary of Library Terms

Index: A list of names or topics—usually found at the end of a publication—that directs you to the pages where those names or topics are discussed within the publication. Information litteracy: The ability to identify information needs, to know how and where to find it, assess it's quality and properly integrate and use it into one's research. Interlibrary Loan (ILL): A service that allows you to borrow materials from other libraries through your own library. You can request a document by ILL if it's not alredy a part of our collections. ISBN: International Standard Book Number; A unique ten digit number identifying a specific edition of a book.ISSN: Similar to the ISBN but used for serials, the International Standard Serial Number is a unique number assigned to serials worldwide. Users can conduct an ISSN search in the online catalog and in some databases.

Glossary of Library Terms

Issue Number: An issue number is used in conjunction with the volume number to indicate a specific magazine or journal issue. For example: The American Journal of Public Health v87 no. 2, February 1997, this is the second issue of the journal for the year 1997.

Glossary of Library Terms

Journal: A publication, issued on a regular basis, which contains scholarly research published as articles, papers, research reports, or technical reports.

Glossary of Library Terms

Keyword: A significant or memorable word or term that indicates a subject or concept and is often used as a search term.

Glossary of Library Terms

Loan period: The length of time for which you can borrow a document from the library. At the end of the loan period, you must either return the document borrowed or renew the loan.

Glossary of Library Terms

Magazine: A publication, issued on a regular basis, containing popular articles, written and illustrated in a less technical manner than the articles found in a journal.

Glossary of Library Terms

Nesting: A searching structure that involves using parentheses to insure that Boolean operators are performed in the sequence intended. This technique allows you to build a complex search using two or more operators (AND, OR, NOT). Newspaper: A publication containing information about varied topics that are pertinent to general information, a geographic area, or a specific subject matter (i.e. business, culture, education). Often published daily and mostly written by journalists. Non-Circulating Item: An item that cannot be checked out of the Library.

Glossary of Library Terms

Open science : The movement to make scientific research (including publications, data, physical samples, and software) and its dissemination accessible to all levels of society, amateur or professional. Off-campus access : Access to subscription-based resources (e.g. electronic journals, electronic books, and bibliographic databases) from a location outside our campus.

Glossary of Library Terms

Peer reviewed journal: Peer review is a process by which editors have experts in a field review books or articles submitted for publication by the experts’ peers. Peer review helps to ensure the quality of an information source by publishing only works of proven validity, methodology, and quality. Periodical: An information source published in multiple parts at regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, biannually). Journals, magazines, and newspapers are all periodicals. Plagiarism: From the Latin plagiarius, meaning "kidnapper." Copying or closely imitating the work of another writer, composer, etc., without permission and with the intention of passing the results off as original work. Copyright law makes literary theft a criminal offense. Primary source: An original record of events, such as a diary, a newspaper article, a public record, or scientific documentation.

Glossary of Library Terms

Reference: A citation to a work is also known as a reference.Remote access: The ability to log onto (or access) networked computer resources from a distant location. Remote access makes available library databases to students researching from home, office, or other locations outside the library.Renew/Renewal: A lengthening (or extension) of the loan period for borrowed library documents.

Glossary of Library Terms

Search Query: A combination of words relating to an information source's author, editor, title, subject heading or keywords serve as search terms. Search terms can be combined by using Boolean operators.Secondary sources: Materials such as books and journal articles that analyze primary sources. Secondary sources usually provide evaluation or interpretation of data or evidence found in original research or documents such as historical manuscripts or memoirs. Style manual: An information source providing guidelines for people who are writing research papers. A style manual outlines specific formats for arranging research papers and citing the sources that are used in writing the paper.

Glossary of Library Terms

Thesaurus: A list of terms which serves as a standardized or controlled vocabulary for identifying, locating, and retrieving information. Truncation: Shortening a word or phrase in an online search in order to retrieve variant forms of that word. To truncate a word while searching, use the asterisk (*). For example: forest* retrieves the words forest, forestry, forests, forested, etc.

Glossary of Library Terms

Verbatim: In exactly the same words as the original source or text, word for word, as in a direct quotation. It is plagiarism to quote verbatim without acknowledging the source. Volume: After many issues of a journal or magazine have been published, we bind them together accordign to the year of publication. This bound collection of issues is called a volume (vol.).

Glossary of Library Terms

Zotero: Citation management tool that helps you collect citations, makes it easy to put citations into documents, and automatically formats bibliographies in the proper format and order.

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