Library Lingo

 Did you ever want to understand what people who work in libraries were talking about?

INDEX: A | B | C | D | E | F-G | H-I | J-K | L-M | N-O | P | R-S | T-U-V-W | References

~A~

Abstract: A summary of the content of a document or article. 

Academic Search Complete: This computerized full text article database, produced by EBSCO, tries to cover all major disciplines that are studied in a liberal arts institution.

Adobe Acrobat®: Adobe's software that creates documents in Portable Document Format (PDF). Many scanners include a version of Acrobat software so that paper documents can be converted into digital PDF images. The current version of Office and Google Docs can create PDF documents using a special print function. Acrobat has a number of output settings: one allows collaborative markup of a document, while another "locks" the PDF to prevent changes. A free PDF viewer exists for almost every computer operating system, making this format a good choice for widespread document distribution.

Adobe Acrobat Reader®: A freeware software program, available for download at the Adobe site, that allows viewing of PDF files on your computer.

Advanced Catalog: The advanced library catalog provides a search mode offering more options than one simple searchbox. Advanced search mode is more difficult to use, but is essential for focusing your search results to just the highly relevant books or articles. Search engines such as Google offer advanced search modes, as do most journal databases offered by the university. For help with advanced search, phone an OCLS librarian at 800-521-1848.

ALI (Academic Libraries of Indiana): A resource sharing consortium of almost all of the academic libraries in Indiana. Students may submit a signed ALI card application to OCLS that allows the student to have borrowing privileges at other Indiana academic libraries.

Almanac: A book that provides statistics and facts. The short subject specific articles found in Credo Reference are similar to those found in an almanac.

AMP (Christian Ministry): Applied Ministry Project, the ministry project is designed to demonstrate that a student has developed the ability to integrate a diverse education and several years of practical experience.

Annotated Bibliography: A list of works with descriptions and a brief summary or critical statement about each work.

Annotation: A brief summary describing an entry in a bibliography.   Annotations are used to evaluate and fully describe a work.   Annotations should be brief (rarely longer than 150 words).

Article: A style of writing that argues a certain point of view, using evidence to support the position.

Article: A short written work either found in a periodical or in a collected work such as an encyclopedia.

Authoritative: Material that is supported by evidence and accepted by most authorities in the field.

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~B~

Bibliographic Record: Information used for the identification of any information source. Most records consist of the author’s name, date of publication, title, city of publication, and publisher. The references on an APA "References" page are a form of bibliographic record.

Bibliography: A list of sources which at a minimum provides bibliographic record that identifies each unique book, article, or other item. In an "annotated bibliography" each bibliographic record is followed by text that describes or reviews the item. The annotation in a "working bibliography" is created early in the research process, and is used by the writer to record how the item might be used. Note that APA is silent about how to format bibliographies. For specific guidance on creating your bibliography, consult your professor.

Boolean operators: And, Or, Not

Boolean searching: A search strategy for finding specific information on your topic. Using Boolean operators you may combine search terms to find results:

Browser: A software program that allows you to view Internet resources. Also called a web browser. Examples: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Foxfire, and Netscape Navigator are browsers.

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~C~

Call Number: The number and/or letter code which determines the location of a book on the library shelf. The number/letter code designates the subject classification of a book. The call number appears on the cover of the book and on the record in the online catalog. Be sure you have the complete call number to easily find the item on the shelf. Example: Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary has a call number of: 423 M551

Card Catalog: An obsolete name for the library catalog. Large libraries prior to 1900 would print catalog books listing all of the books in their inventory. From 1900 to 1980 libraries maintained their inventories and indexes on 3x5 cards stored in special filing cabinets which were dubbed "card catalogs." The card technology lasted for generations, primarily because adding or deleting a few cards could instantly update the library's inventory. Since 1980 large libraries have maintained electronic files of records that tell what materials the library owns and where the materials are stored. The computer technology of modern library catalogs lets faculty and students access the information (now including the full text of e-books) from their home or office, enabling online university programs to offer the resources of a residential program.

Cataloging: The process of preparing bibliographic records to enter into the library’s catalog.

CD-ROM: Compact Disc-Read Only Memory; a data storage medium that is used to store and read large amounts of information.

Check Out: To borrow materials from the library for a specified amount of time. For example, students in the College of Graduate Studies and the College of Adult & Professional Studies may check out materials for 28 days.

CINAHL: This acronym stands for Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature.  CINAHL indexes a huge number of articles, and offers the most options for sorting search results of any nursing database.

Circulating Collection: The collection of materials which may be borrowed from the library.

Citation: The information needed to describe and/or locate a particular book or article.   An "in-text" APA citation directs the user to a "reference" at the end of the article or book. A more generic use of the word "citation" can refer to the reference or full bibliographic information, and will usually contain information such as author’s name, title, date of publication, source, etc.

Cohort Group: Indiana Wesleyan groups most students into cohort groups which stay together from course to course.  Your core group consists of your program and a 3 or 4 digit number.  Example: ASB1595.

Collection: The accumulated group of all library materials.   Books and e-book material are accessible through the library catalog, magazines and journal articles are accessed through various databases, and some paper resources (such as archive documents) can only be used in the Jackson library building.

Controlled Vocabulary: A specified list of subject terms. Can also be called descriptors.

Copyright: The legal provision of exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute a work.

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~D~

Database: Any electronically stored collection of data. In the case of libraries, it may be a database of articles from journals; a database of book, videos, etc.; or a combination of both.

Database vendor: The company that provides access to a particular database. Examples: EBSCOHost, Emerald, Gale, ProQuest.

Descriptor: Interchangeable with "subject heading," the ERIC and CINAHL databases use the term "descriptor” while EBSCO and book catalogs use "subject headings".

Dewey Decimal Classification System: The classification system by Melvil Dewey, first published in 1876, which divides knowledge into ten main classes, with further subdivisions, accompanied by decimal notation. Materials are placed in the library and are assigned a number from the Dewey Decimal System. The Jackson Library shelves its books using the Dewey Decimal System.

Digital Object Identifier: The digital object identifier is a permanent identifier assigned to any piece of intellectual property on a digital network.  The DOI number consists of both alpha and numeric characters. The DOI number is utilized in the APA writing style, appearing on the references page formatted either as an identifier or a link.  Example: doi:10.1080/01930826.2012.700801 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2012.700801 .

Dissertation: Original, independent research written and completed when obtaining a PhD, EdD, etc.

Dissertations & Theses: Database that provides access to abstracts, citations, and even some full text for every title in their database.  It is made up of dissertations and theses written for master's and doctoral requirements.

DOI: See Digital Object Identifier.

Due Date: The date assigned when books that are borrowed from the library must be returned.

DVD: Storing 4.7 gigabytes, a DVD has almost seven times the storage capacity of a CD-ROM. A DVD is a useful storage medium for backing up course materials.

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~E~

EBSCOHost: A computer database vendor that provides access to e-books, reports, and articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals. A selection of EBSCO databases is often found in public libraries, so mastering an EBSCO database will often be useful long after your formal academic studies have concluded.

Electronic Books (E-Books): Books available in an electronic format which can be accessed and read via your computer or handheld device. Unfortunately, different suppliers have developed competing formats and various methods to prevent piracy. One of the earliest e-book collections was developed by Project Gutenburg, which has developed a collection of over 57,000 pre-1924 books which are not under copyright and which may be read without fees or authorization. The eBook Central and EBSCO eBook Collection provide IWU students with access to over eighty thousand titles.

Editorial: An article expressing an opinion, usually authored by the staff of a publication.

E-mail attachment: Files can be distributed to another computer by attaching a file to an email message.  The presence of an attachment is often signaled by a graphic of a paper clip. 📎
Email systems usually restrict the size of attachments; therefore, file sharing sites such as Onedrive are used for distributing video files.

Emerald: A publisher of scholarly articles and books on management. In advanced search, one can limit search results to "My Subscribed Content" -- a useful limiter, as the University only purchased access to a subset of Emerald publications.

Empirical: Data or information obtained through experiment, experience, or observation, and which can be verified.

Encyclopedia: A set of books containing informational articles, usually arranged in alphabetical order. Examples of encyclopedias include Credo Research and Virtual Reference.

ERIC: This acronym stands for Educational Resources Information Center.  It is a computerized database including abstracts of education journal articles and documents such as unpublished reports, dissertations, and government studies.

Essay: A literary composition in which the author analyzes or interprets a subject, often from a personal point of view.

Evaluation: A critical assessment of a work or information source.

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~F-G~

Fair Use: Conditions under which copying is not an infringement of U.S. copyright law.

Field: 1) A part of a database record that contains one piece of information. For example, the author field would contain the name of an author. 2) an area of study. Example: law, business, education, etc.

Format: The physical form in which information appears. Examples include paper, microfilm, e-book, DVD, etc.

Full-Text Articles: Those articles in an online periodical index, e.g. Expanded Academic, that include availability of the entire article. Sometimes pictures/graphics/charts/tables cannot be included, but just the actual text of the original article. 

Full-Text Database: A database in which the full content or text, of the article is available for you to access and read immediately.

Gale Databases: A computer database vendor that provides access to newspaper, magazine, and journal articles. Gale also offers specialized products such as Opposing Viewpoints and Virtual Reference Library

General Information Source: Sources providing general or background information. General information sources include handbooks, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. General Resource databases include scholarly sources such as Academic Search Complete or ProQuest Advanced Search.  Note that the database category General Resources also includes some unique items which do not fit in any established category, such as the Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory.

Government Publication: Any document created by a local, state or national government organization. Often referred to as a government document, or a public document.

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~H-I~

Hit: A successful match when searching the Internet or a database.

Holdings: See Collection.

Homepage: The main web page of a person or business. The homepage for the University is www.indwes.edu   The Off Campus Library Services homepage is https://ocls.indwes.edu .

HTML: HyperText Markup Language. Used for documents on the World Wide Web.

Http: HyperText Transfer Protocol. The client-server TCP/IP protocol used on the World Wide Web. Allows transfer of HTML documents.

Index: Index: A list which will guide you to where information can be found. The person creating the index selects the categories to be indexed (for example, author, title, or subject) and which terms to index. An index can take the form of a list found at the final pages of paper books, or it may be an electronic tool organizing a database.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL): A system of agreements between libraries by which they will share their parts of their collections. If a patron wishes to have a book or article that is not available in his/her library, a librarian may arrange to borrow this item from another library. (Note: Please use IWU's form for interlibrary loan requests—not your local library.)

INSPIRE: Indiana SPectrum of Information REsources; A group of databases, mostly provided by vendors, which are provided through state funding to residents of the state of Indiana.

Internet: A global system of computer networks connected via TCP/IP protocols using a telecommunications system.

Issue Number: A single uniquely numbered or dated part of a periodical. One issue is part of a larger volume.

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~J-K~

Jackson Library: The main library of Indiana Wesleyan University, located on the main campus in Marion, Indiana. OCLS is a department of Jackson Library.  Lewis A. Jackson was an aviator (he was a Tuskeegee airman), educator, and entrepreneur -- and a 1939 alum. (see "Jackson", n.d.)

Journal: A periodical, especially one containing scholarly articles on documenting the research and practices in a particular subject field.

Journal Holdings List: The list of journals which IWU library has access to in some kind of format. These formats can be paper copy, microform, electronic access (Internet), etc. 

Keyword: The most significant word in the abstract, title, or text of a work which is used as a search term.  Keywords can be used when searching a database, using your vocabulary instead of the system's controlled vocabulary. Keywords are often the most important word(s) in a title. Example: in the title Heart of Darkness, the keywords are "Heart" and "Darkness".

KYVL: Kentucky Virtual Library; A group of databases, mostly provided by vendors, which are provided through state funding to residents of the commonwealth of Kentucky.

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~L-M~

LAN: See Library Access Number

Nexis Uni® Academic:   A database which provides access to information from newspapers, journals, reference materials and legal documents. 

Librarian: A person responsible for the administration of a library. S/he obtains a master's in library science and are proficient in locating all kinds of information. OCLS has outstanding "reference" librarians. 

Library Access Number (LAN): The 14-digit number that is issued to all students for identification purposes.  If you were issued a student ID card, this number should be visible. If you never received an ID card you may generate your unique LAN using your student ID number. Or you may contact the OCLS staff for assistance (800-521-1848).
Faculty may request a LAN by contacting OCLS. The LAN is a part of the computer system at the IWU Library and allows library privileges at IWU. The number also allows access to a number of subscription databases that the university provides for student/faculty use. A LAN is only active for those actively employed or taking courses at IWU.

Library Catalog: The index and inventory of the library's book and journal holdings. The online library catalog tracks whether an item has been borrowed or is available for loan, and offers a "request" option to select books for shipment to remote students by "postal delivery." Students and faculty can check their library account to see when the books they borrowed need to be returned.

Library Consortium: A formal association of libraries. SWON is an example of a library consortium.

Literature Search: A search using various databases or other means to locate citations on a topic. 

Magazine: A periodical for general reading, containing articles on various subjects by different authors.

Meta search engines: A web site that allows you to search many search engines at one time. The disadvantage of metasearch is that special search options available in each individual database are unavailable in the blended product.   Example meta search engines include: Dogpile (www.dogpile.com), Startpage (www.startpage.com) and Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com).

Microfiche: A flat sheet of photographic film. Periodicals often store information on microfiche because many pages of material can be stored in this format. See microform.

Microfilm: Photographic film rolls housed on reels, cartridges or cassettes. Periodicals often store information on microfilm because many pages of material can be stored in this format. See microform.

Microform: Includes microfilm and microfiche. Microfilm is film that contains photographic images of information, e.g. pages of a journal. Microfiche are flat 4 inch by 6-inch sheets of photographic images. Microfilm is either 1 inch wide or approximately. 3 inches wide and on a roll. Special machines are needed to read the reduced images and to print back to a paper format. If the Jackson Library collection has a desired document in a microform format, the OCLS staff will scan and email a limited number of pages from the microform document upon request.

Monograph: A book, especially a scholarly one, on a single subject.

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~N-O~

Non-circulating: Library materials which cannot leave the library. Some examples include reference materials, journals, microform, etc.

Off Campus Library Services (OCLS): Off Campus Library Services provides you with immediate access to library resources for your research needs. Based in Jackson Library at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, the OCLS staff is prepared to serve the unique needs of adult learners of the Colleges of Adult and Professional Studies and Graduate Studies.

Online Card Catalog: A term marking the transition from inventory cards in wooden cabinets to electronic indexes accessed by computer.   In the period 1880-1980 libraries were usually inventoried and indexed using cards. The cabinet where these inventory cards were shelved was known as the "card catalog." and the computer version added the prefix "online." The reference to cards is now disappearing, and most librarians simply refer to the "catalog" or "library catalog."

Operators: Words such as AND, OR, and NOT that are used to combine search sets to broaden or narrow the results of a search. See Boolean Operators.

Opinion Sources: Sources that express the opinion of the author (examples: editorials and blog posts). These generally are not authoritative sources.

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~P~

PALNI: An acronym for Private Academic Library Network of Indiana. A consortium of the private and independent colleges and seminaries in Indiana.

PDF File: Portable document format used by Adobe Acrobat®. Used by OCLS to transmit scanned documents.

Peer-reviewed: Also referred to as scholarly, academic, primary, refereed or technical journals. Usually an original publication (not previously published) that contains articles that have been reviewed by peers before acceptance by the journal for publication. Each article submission must fill a ‘gap’ of knowledge in that discipline area and must be substantial enough that those doing research from that article can build and add to the knowledge base.

Periodical: Any publication which appears in regular issues over time—newspapers, magazines, journals. The term ‘periodical’ and ‘journal’ are interchangeable.

Periodical Holdings: See Journal Holdings List.

Periodical Index: A listing that cites the individual articles appearing in a selected group of periodicals.

Personalized Search Plan (PSP): Provide your OCLS librarian with all of the requirements for your assignment, and information about the specific topic or thesis statement you have chosen, and outline what research you have already done. The librarian will investigate your topic or thesis, and reply later with an email suggesting a research strategy. This personalized search plan (PSP) will typically recommend specific terms to use in couple OCLS databases.

Plagiarism: The taking or copying of someone else’s words, ideas, thoughts, pictures, etc., and presenting them as your own. Academic writing requires in text citation to show that ideas are coming from outside sources.

Primary Sources: Original manuscripts, contemporary records, or documents which are used by an author in writing a book or other literary compilation. Also called "source material" or sometimes "original sources".

ProQuest: Database vendor that provides access to full-text newspapers, like Wall Street Journal, and full-text magazine collections for nursing and education and business.   ProQuest also provides access to Dissertations & Theses.

Publication: A book, periodical, musical score, etc. that has been "brought before the public"; in other words, a work that has been printed and distributed.

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~R-S~

Record: A collection of data fields used to describe a work. For example, a record for an article in a database might have information from the article's author, title, journal title, volume, and pages numbers fields. In most databases you have the ability to decide which fields of a record you would like to view.

Reference: In APA, a "reference" provides a standard description of a source used in the document. It provides enough detail so that a reader could request a copy of the document from a publisher or library. For example, a reference for an article provides enough information ( author, publication date, article title, journal name, issue, and page numbers) so that a copy of the article could be obtained from a database or by InterLibrary Loan.   A list of references concludes this "Library Lingo" page.

Reference Collection: The non-circulating materials of a library which provide basic information about a topic. Reference books may only be used in the library, they do not check-out.

Renew: An extension of the loan period for charged library materials. You can submit a request to renew items by using a form found under "Key Links", or by calling OCLS at 1-800-521-1848.

Renewal: Extending a check-out for a period of time beyond the original due date.

Research: Systematic, intensive searching conducted to discover new knowledge.

Research Article: A journal article that describes original research. It may utilize different kinds of research, e.g. historical, action, descriptive, longitudinal, etc. The author(s) are the ones who did the research/experimentation, etc. They are not writing about research, but the actual research. The article usually will be broken out into sections, including purpose of the study, methodology, findings, conclusion, references. These kinds of articles are usually found in peer-reviewed journals. See also: empirical, peer-reviewed

Research Strategy: The methodology or plan followed to find information on a subject or research topic.  Your librarians can help you create a research strategy (see Personalized Search Plan).

Scope: The content of a work; what is included and what is excluded.

Secondary Source: Books or articles that explain or analyze primary sources. Example: A history of literary criticism.

Search: See Literature Research

Search Directory: A search directory is a human-curated list of web sites that allows you to search for categorized information.   Examples of search directories include  Curlie (curlie.org),  &  the WWW Virtual Library (www.vlib.org.uk).
Manually organizing and retrieving information by subject requires expertise and is tedious, so many directory efforts have been abandoned.   Today search is commonly done using "search engines" which have a search box that queries an engine-generated index.

Search Engine: A web site that allows you to perform keyword searches on an index of the Internet to locate information. Two U.S. search engines which maintain their own indexes include Google (www.google.com) and Bing (www.bing.com).   Many other U.S. search engines, such as DuckDuckGo (www.duckduckgo.com) and Teoma (www.teoma.com)  make use of the indexes of either Bing and Google, and thus provide similar results.

Serial: A publication that is issued in parts indefinitely over time. Examples: journals, periodicals, magazines, almanacs, etc.

Set: When conducting a search in a database, the results of the search form a set.

Subject Area: Any field, such as nursing, business, education, etc, that studies a particular topic.

Subject Heading: The specific word or phrase used to find a book or article on a specific topic in a catalog or magazine index. See descriptor.

SWON Libraries (Southwest Ohio & Neighboring Libraries): A consortium of all types of libraries located in southwest Ohio; northern Kentucky. IWU belongs to this consortium and this allows students/faculty to go to these libraries and check out materials.

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~T-U-V-W~

Table of Contents: A list of the contents of a work; usually found at the beginning of a book, periodical or magazine.

TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; the language governing communications between all computers on the Internet

Telnet: Internet standard protocol for remote login. Runs on top of TCP/IP. It acts as a terminal emulator.

Tertiary Sources: Sources that contain information that is a distillation and/or collection of primary and secondary sources. Examples include encyclopedias, handbooks, indexes.

Thesaurus: In a database, this function will lead you to other related terms that should be used for searching your topic; will list synonyms for your search term. Used extensively for searching databases such as ERIC or CINAHL.

Thesis: The main idea or argument of a paper.

Topic: The broad subject content of a paper, article, book, etc.

Truncation: In database or Internet searching, to cut the search term short to retrieve all terms with a common root. Example: If looking for articles on assessment, you would truncate to assess*. This would tell the database to search for all terms beginning with the letters assess, such as assess, assesses, assessing, assessed, assessment, etc. 

URL: Uniform Resource Locator; the web address of a web site. Example: http://www.google.com is the URL for the Google homepage.

Vendor: See Database vendor.

Volume: Contains the total collection of all sequential issues of a serial over a given time period.

Wi-Fi: Wireless Fidelity; Wireless networking. Allows your computer to access the Internet via radio signals.

Wildcard: Wildcards are used in the middle of a word to find variants of terms. Each database has its own symbol for indicating a wildcard, however, most frequently a question mark, "?" is used to indicate that "any single character" can be used for matching -- (Example: Wom?n would find articles containing the word women or woman). An asterisk is generally used to indicate that the preceding phrase is to be used as a "stem" for matching -- (Example: Research* would find articles containing any words that begin with "research" such as "research", "researching","researcher", "researched" and so forth).

World Wide Web: World Wide Web. Internet client-server hypertext method of distributing information on the Internet.

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References

Hutchison, N. B. (2004, July). Library jargon: Student recognition of terms and concepts commonly used by librarians in the classroom. College & Research Libraries, 65, 349-354.

Off Campus Library Services. (2004). Library resource guide. Marion, IN: Author.

Learn the net: Glossary. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.learnthenet.com/glossary

Library lingo: Some common library terms defined. (n.d.). The University of Texas at San Antonio Library. Retrieved from http://libguides.utsa.edu/content.php?pid=97975

Pemberton, A., & Fritzler, P. (2004, March). The language barrier: Don’t let library lingo get in the way of learning. College & Research Libraries News, 65, 154-155.

Young, H. (1983). The ALA glossary of library and information science. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

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