Glossary of Library Terms

 A - F     G - L    M - Z

Abstract: A summary of an article or book.

Annotation: A note which describes, explains, or evaluates content of a work.

APA format:  The style recommended by the American Psychological Association for citing references.  Several copies of the APA Publication manual are kept on reserve under the call number RESERVBF76.7.P83 1994

Appendix: A section of a book containing supplementary materials such as tables or maps.

Archives: A collection of original records from a person or an organization; or records from a number of different sources that are kept together to ensure their preservation. The Towson Room contains archives of the University.  It is located on the fifth floor of the Albert S. Cook Library.

Artifact: An object from a particular period of time in human history. 

Article: A manuscript published in an journal, magazine or part of a larger work such as an encyclopedia. 

Author: The person(s) or group responsible for creating, sponsoring or writing a book or other publication. Authors may be editors, compilers, artists, composers, and photographers. 

Bibliographic format:  The style used for arranging information in a citation or a bibliography. Examples:  MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association) are two formats. 

Bibliography: A list of citations for books, periodical articles or other materials, usually compiled on a specific topic, author, or some element common to the entries which are systematically arranged.

Biography: A documented account of a person's life.

Boolean Logic: A manner in which computers can process data, named after the 19th-century English mathematician, George Boole. Boolean operators are: 

    AND: which narrows a keyword search by collecting all terms present in the same document 
            (ex. documents with both apples and oranges), 

    NOT: which prevents retrieval of unwanted documents containing a keyword (ex. documents 
            on just apples, not oranges), 

    OR: which broadens a keyword search by linking related terms (ex. documents on either 
          apples or oranges).

Browse: To randomly peruse the contents of a collection of books or documents. 

Call Number: Combinations of letters and numbers which indicate where a book is located on the shelves. Cook Library uses the Library of Congress classification system, which is a subject classification system. We also use  Dewey numbers for our juvenile collection.

Catalog: An ordered and arranged list of materials, including books, maps, microform, etc. A catalog records, describes and indexes the materials in a library collection. Each item in the catalog contains detailed information on the author, title, publisher and provides a call number and location for that item. 

Citation: A reference to an exact source of information, usually contains author, title and publisher information if the source is a book and contains author, article title, journal title, publisher, volume and page number information if the source is a journal article.

Controlled Vocabulary: A list of authorized subject terms used as search terms, particularly in databases. See also Thesaurus.

Cross Reference: A reference from one term or word to another term or word. Cross references are often used in online catalogs, databases and books. (ex. American Poets see Poets, American)

Database: A collection of information or data stored in machine- readable form and accessed by a computer.

Depository Library: Specially designated libraries that receive U.S. Government publications free of charge. Follow this link to Maryland's Depository Libraries.

Descriptor: An indexing term, a word, or a phrase used to describe the content of a document. See Controlled Vocabulary. Identifier is a subject term that is not from a controlled vocabulary.

Directory: A list of persons or organizations systematically arranged, giving addresses, affiliations, and similar data.

Discipline: A branch of knowledge (ex. social sciences or humanities).

Dissertation: Research that is completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's or doctoral degree.

Edition: All copies of a book printed from a single type setting.

Encyclopedia: Summary of knowledge listed under topics with emphasis on historical background and trends, often includes bibliographies.

Entry: Description of individual sources of information. See also Record.

Field: The different elements or access points by which records are retrieved in a database (ex. Author field and Title field). 

Finding Tool:  Any bibliographic work that can be used to locate sources of information on a topic.  Examples include indexes, bibliographies, directories, catalogs, and databases.

Free-text Search: A search for words regardless of where they appear in a record.

Full-text Database: A database which provides the complete text of material as it appeared in the original source. 

Handbook: A compact book of facts that organize information about a particular field of study.

Index: 1. Alphabetical list of the subjects discussed in a book with corresponding page numbers. 2. An index may also list subjects located in various places, for example a periodical index lists articles located in many periodicals. These types of indexes may be in print form, on CD-ROM or online.

Interlibrary Loan: A cooperative arrangement among libraries by which our library may borrow material from another library.

Internet: A worldwide network of computers that may be accessed both in Cook Library and through the campus computer network. The Internet contains a wide range of materials developed by a variety of users, from research organizations to your next door neighbor. Materials used from the Internet should be carefully evaluated.

Journal or Magazine or Periodical or Serial: Publications which come periodically, usually monthly, bi-monthly, weekly or quarterly. A journal tends to be scholarly in nature while a magazine is for general reading.

Keyword or Word Searching: Searching a database by using key or important words.

LC (Library of Congress classification system):  Cook Library uses LC to arrange and locate materials on shelves. 

Literature Search: A systematic and exhaustive search for published material on a specific topic.

Magazine: See Journal.

Menu: A list of choices or commands that are displayed on the computer screen when using a database.

Microform or Microfiche or Microfilm: Documents which have been photographed and reduced in size. Microfiche are documents located on a 3" X 5" card and microfilm are documents located on a reel of film.  Cook Library has a large collection of ERIC documents on microfiche.

MLA format or style:  The style recommended by the Modern Language Association for arranging information in citations and bibliographies.

Monograph: A book, usually a single volume dealing with a single subject.

Online: Databases that are stored on a remote computer and accessed locally, usually this means databases accessed over the Internet. 

Online Catalog: A catalog of library records in machine-readable form accessed by a computer.

Operators: See Boolean Logic. Boolean operators are " AND ", " NOT ", and " OR ". 

Periodical: See Journal. 

Periodical Index: An index that lists articles located in journals, magazines, or newspapers. Periodical indexes provide citations, including author, title, periodical title, volume, pages, and publication date information. Some periodical indexes include abstracts which are summaries of the article content.

Plagiarism: Taking ideas or content from an author and portraying those ideas or content as your own without giving credit  See the following section from Cook Library's Infotutor.

Primary Source: A firsthand or eyewitness account of an event. Examples include documents, manuscripts, diaries, recording or original published report of research.  Legal primary sources include statutes, court decisions, executive orders and treaties.   Secondary sources contain interpretations or compilations of primary source material.

Record: Individual entries in a database. These entries usually contain citation information and are arranged in fields. For example, in the online catalog you may locate thousands of book records.

Scholarly Article: A journal article usually written by a researcher or expert on a subject using original research. These articles provide an abstract, footnotes, a bibliography and information about the author.

Search Strategy: A road map or plan for doing research.

Serial: See Journal.

Stacks: Bookshelves in a library.  The stacks are located on the 4th and 5th floors of Cook Library.

Subject Heading: Using controlled vocabulary, such as the Library of Congress subject headings, to search for material on a certain topic.

Thesaurus: A controlled vocabulary word list with synonyms to accompany a particular index. 

Thesis Statement: A statement that articulates the purpose of a research paper. 

Truncation: The method of using a symbol to instruct the computer to search variant word spellings. For example, the question mark is often used as a truncation symbol, so to locate books on both ecology and ecologists, type the word as: ecolog?. 

Yearbook:  A volume which comes out annually describing developments in a particular field.

Based on work of Dorothy Sherwood and  Robin Angeley (January 2000). Western Washington University at  http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~rangeley/glossary.html

Page created 2/17/01
Updated 2/13/03
Mary Ranadive