|
| |
Library Jargon Defined
or
What does THAT Mean????
Every profession uses specific words to describe materials, processes and systems that
are relevant to that field. This glossary will help you understand what librarians mean by
selected library terms.
Page contents:
Glossary of Library Terms
- Abridged Dictionary see Dictionary.
- Abstract
- A brief, non-judgmental summary of a work, often of a periodical article, accompanied by
the bibliographic description of the work.
- Abstracting Service
- A collection of abstracts in a particular field or on a particular subject prepared by
an individual or a commercial organization and regularly received by subscribers. Usually
the abstracts are arranged by subject, and often include author and subject indexes. Psychological
Abstracts is an example of an abstracting service.
Academic Journal see Journal
- AV see Audiovisual
Materials
- Audiovisual Materials
- Non-book materials such as film-strips, recordings, films, records, video and audio
cassettes, CDs, etc. Sometimes these are just called AV.
- Autobiography
- An account of a person’s life, written by that person.
See Also Biography.
Return to Page Contents
- Bibliographic Citation
- The information needed for someone to find the item. For example, the bibliographic
citation for a book would contain the Title, Author or Editor, Edition, Place of
Publication, Publisher and Year of Publication. The bibliographic citation for an article
would contain the Title of the Article, Author of the Article, Title of the Periodical,
Volume Number, Issue Number (or sometimes the month and date), Year of Publication, and
the Page Numbers. Sometimes also referred to as a bibliographic entry, reference, or just
as a CITATION.
- Bibliography
- A list of items such as books, documents, articles, videos, etc. arranged in a logical
order and having something in common such as the author or producer, a subject, or the
geographic region. Books, scholarly articles, term papers, etc. often include
bibliographies listing the information sources on which they are based. A bibliography
usually contains identifying information, for example title, author, publisher, date and
place of publications of a book, so that the reader can locate the item.
- Bio-bibliography
- A Bibliography with brief biographical
information about the author or authors of the works.
- Biography
- A written account of a person’s life, or some
portion of their life. See Also Autobiography.
- Book Truck
- A cart used to hold books before they are re-shelved, and then used to carry the books
to the shelves for re-shelving.
- Boolean Searching
- A method of combining search terms by expressing the relationship of one concept to
another generally using 'and', 'or', 'not'. The expression "Value 1 and Value 2"
requires both values to be in the grouping retrieved; "Value 1 or Value 2" will
retrieve either of the values; "Value 1 but not Value 2" will retrieve only
Value 1 items with no mention of Value 2.
- For example, searching "gone and wind" would pick up the title Gone with
the Wind as well as Margaret Mitchell of Atlanta, the Author of Gone with the Wind";
"gone or wind" would pick up the above titles plus Going, Going, Gone; Wind
and Beyond; Wind in the Willows; The Parade's Gone By; and Watching the Wind.
- See Also Keyword Searching.
- Bound
- A term referring to pages, sheets or issues of periodicals which have been covered by a
binding, usually hardback, to create a single Volume. This process
is used in libraries to preserve items for long term use.
Return to Page Contents
- Call Number
- Letters, numbers, and symbols (used separately or in combination) assigned to a book to
show its location in the library shelving system. Call numbers are derived from the
classification system used by the particular library. The Library of
Congress Classification System is used at the Boise State University Albertsons
Library.
- Catalog
- A list of items such as books, periodicals, maps and/or videos arranged in a defined
order. The list usually records, describes and indexes the resources of a collection, a
library or a group of libraries. The Online Catalog of Boise State
University Albertsons Library is named
Voyager.
-
- CD-ROM
- An abbreviation for the term "Compact Disc--Read Only Memory". This acronym
refers to a computer-readable CD that contains information that can be retrieved and
displayed on a terminal, but that cannot be altered by the user.
- Citation see Bibliographic
Citation.
- Controlled vocabulary
- The words and phrases used by a subject specialist when creating Subject
Headings for an article, document, book, etc. for a specific index or catalog. For
example, the books within the BSU Albertsons Library collection are given subject headings
from the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Articles listed in the ERIC database
are given subject headings by the indexers of that database from the ERIC Thesaurus.
Using a controlled vocabulary brings together items of similar subjects under a single
term. Compare with Natural Language.
Return to Page Contents
- Database
- A collection of computer records that have a standard format, usually containing Fields that are searchable and allow some electronic manipulation such
as sorting or grouping. Databases within the library usually contain Bibliographic Citations (information about books,
articles, government documents, etc.) although databases containing statistical material
or the full text of selected publications are also possible.
Voyager
and CD-ROM indexes/ abstracts are both examples of databases within
the Boise State University Albertsons Library.
- Descriptors
- Words or phrases used as Subject Headings.
- Desiderata
- A list of items which are out-of-print or hard to obtain. Requestors have indicated
that the title should be added to the collection and searched on the out-of-print market.
- Dictionary
- A book which defines the terms of a language, profession, discipline, or specialized
area of knowledge. The terms are arranged in alphabetical order. Usually, a language
dictionary will give the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of each word. A dictionary
of the words and terms of a restricted field of knowledge gives only the meanings.
ABRIDGED DICTIONARIES limit themselves to the most commonly used words.
UNABRIDGED DICTIONARIES aim at a much higher level of completeness.
- E-Journal
- A Periodical that is available in an electronic or computerized
form such as on the Web or on CD-ROM. An abbreviated term for electronic journal.
- Encyclopedia
- A work containing factual articles on subjects in every field of knowledge, usually
arranged alphabetically. A SUBJECT ENCYCLOPEDIA is a similar work on a single field
of activity or a single subject. An encyclopedia can be one volume or many volumes,
depending on the amount of material included.
- Field
- A subdivision of the computer record used for a defined category or purpose. An example
in a Bibliographic record is the author field, where
the name of the author is located.
- Field Specific Search
- A search of a Database that identifies the occurrence of a term,
using either Free Text or Controlled
Vocabulary, in a particular Field in the database. A field
specific search is more precise than searching all fields. A common example is a
"subject" search in a library catalog.
- Free text
- Usually describes a method of searching a database using Natural
Language rather than a Controlled
Vocabulary. The person searching would search as many terms as she/he could think of
that would be related to the topic of interest. The computer would search all Fields, or designated fields.
Return to Page Contents
- Glossary
- An alphabetical list of technical terms within a subject field, including definitions. A
glossary may also be a list of unusual or obsolete terms.
- Government Documents
- Monographs, serial publications, reports, or official communication published by any
public governing body--federal, state, county, or municipal.
- House Organ
- Also referred to as a House Journal. This term can apply to two types of
publications: 1) A Periodical intended for the employees of a company providing
news and other items of interest for those employees, or 2) A Periodical covering
the news of a particular company or institution with a limited distribution
usually to customers, potential customers, and others involved in the business
such as vendors or dealers.
- Index
- A list, in alphabetical or numerical order, of the topics, names, etc. that are treated
or mentioned in a publication or group of publications, along with references to the pages
where the topics are discussed. Author, subject and title indexes are common; the type of
index depends on the type of material covered in the publication. An index might be for a
book, an encyclopedia, a group of periodicals, newspapers, government documents, etc.
- Journal
- A Periodical on a specialized topic. Journals are often
published by a professional association, society, foundation, or institute. A
REFEREED JOURNAL or PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL is one in which the process to determine if an article will be
accepted for publication is done by professional colleagues, or peers (also known as the
peer review process). Sometimes these periodicals are also called SCHOLARLY
JOURNALS or ACADEMIC JOURNALS. See
also Magazine.
- Keyword Searching
- Searching which uses a few key, or important, words to retrieve books or articles on a
specific topic or associated with those words in some way. The keywords could be used to
search from the text of the document (if it is a full-text database), or some named Field (author, title, etc.) depending on the Database
being used and the searcher's intent. Often useful for very new topics for which Controlled Vocabulary indexes will not have a subject
term yet established. Searching by keyword often utilizes Boolean
Searching.
- Library of Congress Classification System
- A classification system developed by the Library of Congress for its collection, and
since adopted by most of the nation's colleges and universities. The system is
particularly well-suited to large libraries because of its capacity for generating and
accommodating new subject headings. An example of the Call Number for
a book classified using the Library of Congress Classification System is: HD 1251 .I2 V36
Return to Page Contents
- Magazine
- A Periodical containing news stories or articles on
various subjects and written for general readership (as opposed to a scholarly or
technical audience). See Also Journal.
- Manuscript
- The strictest meaning refers to a document of any kind that is handwritten. The term
may also refer to the handwritten or typescript copy of the text of
a music or literary
composition before it is printed for publication.
- Microfiche
- A small, flat sheet, usually 4x6 or 3x5 inches, of photographic film which contains
micro images arranged in horizontal and vertical rows. Many of the back issues of journals
available at the Boise State University Albertsons Library will be in this format.
Machines which enable viewing and copying are available in the Microforms Room, First
Floor. See Also Microfilm, Microform.
- Microfilm
- Photographic film showing micro images of publications, such as the contents of
journals. Boise State University Albertsons Library microfilm is packaged on a reel and
machines which enable viewing and copying are available in the Microforms Room, First
Floor. See Also Microfiche, Microform.
- Microform
- Refers to material (reports, articles, books, documents, etc.) recorded on photographic
film at a greatly reduced size. Examples include Microfilm and
Microfiche.
- Monograph
- A scholarly book on a single subject, class of subjects, or person. Within the library
field, this term is often used for any non-serial publication. A more specific definition
is a lengthy work on a particular subject or person, detailed in treatment and often
containing bibliographies.
- Natural language
- When choosing words or phrases to describe a document, article, book or other material's
subject content, the indexer (individual creating an Index)
can select any appropriate term, often using the language from the document itself.
Compare with Controlled Vocabulary.
- Offprint
- A copy of an article published in a periodical, specially reprinted for the author's
use, but retaining the numbering of the issue from which it was taken. (From Harrod's...Glossary) Sometimes called a Separate. See
Also Preprint, Reprint.
- Online catalog
- A Catalog in electronic (machine-readable) format and
able to be accessed online. Also known as an ONLINE PUBLIC ACCESS COMPUTER (OPAC). See
Also Voyager.
- OPAC see Online catalog.
- Periodical
- A publication that is produced at regular intervals, or "periodically", under
the same title and is intended to appear indefinitely. Generally, the frequency is more
often than annually such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. See Also Magazine, Journal, Serial, Trade Journal, House
Organ, E-Journal.
- Periodical Holdings List
- An alphabetical list of periodicals owned by the Boise State University Albertsons
Library. Each title entry indicates what years of the periodical the library owns, and
where they are located.
- Periodical Index
- A subject, author, or title Index to a group of periodicals.
Examples include the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, Social Sciences
Index, and General Sciences Index.
- Photocopier
- A machine that reproduces the markings from a piece of paper
or a page onto a different piece of paper using a photographic process.
- Preprint
- A portion of a work printed and issued before the publication of the complete work. A
paper submitted at a conference which is published prior to the holding of the conference.
(From Harrod's...Glossary) See Also Reprint, Offprint.
- Printer
- This term has two meanings: 1) A machine that prints the
output from a computer to paper, or 2) A person or company that produces the printed
copy of a book or other item.
- Proceedings
- The published record of a meeting of a society, association, institution, or other
organization, often accompanied by abstracts or reports of papers presented. Sometimes
synonymous with Transactions.
- Rack
- Shelf or shelves used for displaying books, magazines, periodicals or other library
materials. See Also Range, Stack, Shelving.
- Range
- A row of book shelves, usually double-faced, anywhere in the library. Range is sometimes
synonymous with Stack. See Also Rack, Shelving.
- Refereed Journal see Journal.
- Report
- An official or formal record of the activities of a committee or corporate entity,
or of a special investigation, or of the proceedings of a governmental body.
The term
is also used for publications that are a separately issued record of research results,
research in progress, or other technical studies.
In this case, there is usually a report
number and sometimes a grant number given, and
the publication may be more specifically
called a TECHNICAL REPORT.
- Reprint
- Either 1) A book that has been printed or reproduced at a later date than the original
printing but using the same type and the same content, or 2) A periodical article or a
chapter in a book which is issued separately from the larger publication and at a later
date. See Also Offprint, Preprint.
- Scanner
- A machine that digitizes the markings from a piece of paper
or a page, creating an electronic image of the original.
- Scholarly Journal see Journal.
- Separate see Offprint.
- Serial
- Any publication issued in successive parts, appearing at intervals, usually regular
ones, and, as a rule, intended to be continued indefinitely. The term includes Periodicals, newspapers, annuals, numbered monographic series and
the proceedings, transactions and memoirs of societies. (From Harrod's...Glossary)
- Shelving
- Collectively, the shelves upon which books and other library materials are stored. (From
the ALA Glossary). See Also Rack, Range, Stack.
- Stack
- The shelves or bookcases on which the library's materials are stored. The plural,
stacks, is often used. ("In the stacks on floor 3..."). See Also Rack, Range, Shelving.
- Style Manual
- Special handbooks that illustrate the accepted forms for citing references in
bibliographies, footnotes, and endnotes. Some style manuals are for general use. Others
are published by professional associations as form guides for articles in journals in that
field of knowledge and research.
- Subject Heading
- The word or phrase used to describe the subject content of a work. Also known as Descriptors. An alphabetical list of all the subject
headings in a particular collection or Database with a description
of the location of the work (page number, call number, citation, etc.), is the subject Index for that collection or database. Some indexes or
databases use Controlled Vocabulary, and
others use Natural Language.
- Superintendent of Documents Classification System
- A system of arranging federal government publications in an alpha/ numerical order based
on the name of the major issuing government department (such as Agriculture Department,
Commerce Department, etc.). Often referred to as the SuDocs or SuDox Classification System. An
example of a SuDocs number is: D4.16/3:8. This classification system is the one used by
Boise State University Albertsons Library to arrange the Library's federal government
documents collection, located on the First Floor.
- Thesaurus
- When an index or database uses Controlled
Vocabulary (a standardized word or phrase list), the thesaurus is an alphabetical
listing of the terms currently in use. The thesaurus will also show relationships between
terms such as synonymous or related terms, hierarchical arrangements (broader terms,
narrower terms), and provide references from terms not currently in use to acceptable
terms, including older words or phrases that are no longer used.
- Trade Journal
- A Periodical that publishes news and other items of interest for a particular trade or industry.
- Transactions
- The published papers read at meetings of a society, association, institution, or other
organization, or abstracts of the same. Sometimes synonymous with
Proceedings. A general
distinction made between Transactions and Proceedings is that Transactions
are the papers presented and the Proceedings the records of the meetings.
(From Harrod's...Glossary)
- Unabridged Dictionary see Dictionary.
- Volume
- This word is used to describe two different materials: 1) A series of printed sheets,
bound, typically, in book form, or 2) An arbitrary number of consecutive issues of a
periodical.
- Voyager
- The unique name given to the Boise State University Albertsons Library's online catalog.
Return to Page Contents
Glossaries/
Dictionaries in Print
- Additional definitions can be found in the
following two reference books:
- (call numbers refer to the books' location in the Boise State University Albertsons
Library's collection)
The ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science. Ed. by Heartsill Young.
Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1983. REF Z 1006 .A48 1983
Harrod's Librarians Glossary: 9,000 terms used in information management, library
science, publishing, the book trades and archive management. 8th ed. Compiled by Ray
Prytherch. Aldershot, Hants, England: Gower, 1995. REF Z 1006 .H32 1995.
Return to Page Contents
Other
Library Glossaries on the Internet:
- Boise State University Albertsons Library
- Acquisitions Department Glossary
- ODLIS: Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science by Joan M. Reitz
- Ohio State University Libraries
-
Library Language
- University of Michigan Library
- Library Glossary
Return to Page Contents
This page last modified:
12/08/06 02:14 PM by: Beth Brin,
208-426-3136 Albertsons Library, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise,
Idaho 83725 USA
URL: http://library.boisestate.edu/reference/bbrin/jargon.htm
Return to Top
|
