Included in this list of definitions are terms used in the library to describe areas of the building, services, parts of the collection, research, or technology.

-- A --

Abstract - a brief summary of a journal article or other library resource that classifies, evaluates, or describes the important points of the content.

Adaptive Technology - room in the library devoted to specialized technology to aid students with disabilities.

Almanac - an annual publication containing a variety of useful facts, statistical data, and,in some cases, daily projections for the coming year.

Annotation - a descriptive note added to a bibliography listing, catalog record, reading list, etc.

Annual - a publication issued once a year, e.g. a report, yearbook, or directory.

Anthology - a collection of writings, usually having common characteristics such as subject matter, literary form or from one author.

Archival material - documents and other material deemed worthy to be kept permanently and as nearly as possible in their original form.

Article - a contribution written by one or more persons and published in a periodical or as part of a book.

Atlas - a volume of maps, with or without descriptions, annotations, or history.

Autobiography - a written account of a person’s life written by that person.

-- B --

Barcode Number - the 14-digit number found under the barcode on your I.D. and on the front of each book.

Bibliographic record - a description of an individual item in a collection. Lists the author, title, publishing information, and other data that identifies the item.

Bibliography - a list of books and/or other materials written by one author or on one subject and having something in common with each other.

Biography - a written account of a person’s life.

Book Review - an evaluation of a literary work and found in a periodical publication.

Boolean operators - the words AND, OR, or NOT used to combine search terms in a database.

Bound Periodical - a number of issues of a periodical, usually within a single volume that are bound together in a hard cover.

Browser - a computer program that provides access to the World Wide Web, e. g. Netscape or Explorer.

-- C --

Call Number - the unique numbers and letters given to each item in a library used to identify and locate the item.

Catalog - a list of books, journals, maps, or other items in a collection, a library, or a group of libraries. It is cross-referenced for easy searching.

Cataloging - the process of making entries for a catalog and the processes involved in preparing a book for the shelf.

Censorship - the restriction of production, distribution, circulation or sale of material considered politically, religiously, or morally objectionable.

Charged - when a book is checked out of the library, responsibility is given or charged to the user. The user can also be charged or required to pay for a book not returned to the library.

Circulation Desk - the area of the library that checks books in and out of the library and replaces books on the shelves.

Citation - an identifying reference to a text. Usually includes the title, author, and publishing information.

Collection - a number of books and/or other items on one subject, or of one kind, or collected by a person or organization.

Collection Management - the department in the library responsible for the acquisition, cataloging and processing of all library materials.

Context Sensitive Help - enables the user to get specific help information about whatever part of the database they are using at the time.

Copyright - the privilege granted by a government to an author, composer, artist, etc. to publish and sell their own original work.

Copyright Law - laws which protect the copyright holder from infringement of his/her work and his/her right to publish and sell that work.

Critique - (criticism) a critical analysis of a literary work.

Cross-references - directions that point the information seeker from one subject to another, especially in indexes or catalogs. (Ex: "see" and "see also" references)

Curriculum Library - material located on the ground floor of the Todd Building, that includes curriculum guides, resource units, and a collection of state-adopted textbooks used in grades one through twelve and a representative selection of books for elementary or secondary school libraries.

-- D --

Data - a general term for information.

Database - information stored in computer files, assembled and marketed by commercial Firms, with fee or subscription based access.

Date Due - date on which library materials are due to be returned to the library.

Default - the choice selected by the computer when the user has made no choice, usually the first screen that comes up in an operation.

Descriptor - term/s used to identify a subject in a record.

Dewey Decimal Classification - a system devised by Melvil Dewey which divides information into ten main subjects, with further decimal divisions, using a notation of numbers. It is used in many libraries to arrange the books by their subject.

Discharge - checking in of a book that was loaned and returned.

-- E --

Edition - the whole number of copies of a work issued from one setting of type.

Entry - the record of a book in a catalog that describes the item and gives its location.

-- F --

Field - the space in an entry devoted to one or more related data elements (ex. Title field, author field or call number field).

Full text (full-text) - the complete text of an article or book online.

-- G --

Gateway - an interface which allows access to a variety of other networks or databases.

Glossary - an alphabetical list of terms within a subject field together with definitions.

Government Document - a publication of the government or by the authority of the Government. All citizens have free access to these publications.

-- H --

Hold - keeping a book in the library for a person requesting it. (Applies to books that are charged to another user and rush-process books.)

Holdings - all the materials (books, periodicals, microtext, etc.) possessed by the library.

Hypertext - data that contains links to other data.

-- I --

Index - a systematically arranged list of articles and other information which includes enough information for each item to be located.

Information - a group of data in an understandable form, recorded on paper or some other medium, and capable of communication.

Internet - the name for a group of worldwide information resources connected together by a computer network

ISBN - International Standard Book Number given to every book or edition of a book before publication to identify the publisher, title, edition, and volume.

ISSN - International Standard Serial Number given to identify serial publications.

Issue - a specific publication, complete in itself, of a serial or periodical. Usually indicated in a citation as "n" (number) or "i" (issue) and an issue number.

-- J --

Journal - a newspaper or periodical usually a periodical issued by a society or institution and that contains information in a particular field of study.

Juvenile Book - a book for children. (Most of these are in the Curriculum Library)

-- K --

Keyword - "One of the significant and informative words in a title or document that describes the content of that document." (2)

-- L --

LC Subject Headings - the "word or group of words indicating a subject under which all material dealing with the same theme is entered in a catalog or bibliography" and assigned by the Library of Congress. (1)

Literature Review - a survey of progress in a particular field over a given period of time.

Literature Search - "a systematic and exhaustive search for published material bearing on a specific problem or subject; an intermediate stage between reference work and research." (1)

Loan Period - the period of time which is allowed for the use of library materials.

-- M --

Magazine - "a periodical publication for general reading, containing articles on various subjects by different authors." (1)

Microcard - "an opaque card on which microcopies have been reproduced photographically." (3)

Microfiche - a flat sheet of photographic film containing very small images of the text of a publication. A machine reader must be used to read the information.

Microfilm - " a microphotograph on cellulose film."(3) A machine reader must be used to read the information.

Microtext - "a form of photocopying in which the copy is reduced in size so much that it must be read in a ‘reader’ or by projection." This includes microcards, microfiche and microfilm.

 Monograph - "a separate treatise on a single subject or class of subjects, or on one person, usually detailed in treatment but not extensive in scope and often containing bibliographies."(3)

-- N --

Network - a system of individual computers which are linked electronically, allowing each machine to share the resources of the others.

-- O --

Online Catalog - electronic, searchable database which contains a listing of the library’s collection.

Overdue Book - a library book which has not been returned to the library by the due date.

Oversize Book - "one which is too large to be shelved in normal sequence."(3)

-- P --

Periodical - a publication published at regular intervals (periodically) and more frequently than once per year. It includes articles by several writers. Included in this category are newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Periodical Index - an index to the material in a periodical or group of periodicals with similar subjects.

Periodical Collection - a library’s collection of newspapers, magazines, and journals in bound, unbound, or microtext format and kept as a separate collection(s).

Plagiarism - "to copy the writings of another person and publish the same as original work." (3)

Primary source - see "Source - Primary."

Publication - Professional - any publication which is produced or published by an organization of professionals in a field.

Publication - Refereed - a publication which contains articles that have been reviewed by other professionals (peers) in the field and accepted for publication.

Publication - Scholarly - a publication that contains articles by scholars or researchers in a field. Professional and refereed publications could be included with these.

-- R --

Ready Reference - the part of the reference desk that contains reference materials which can quickly answer questions of a factual nature.

Record - the complete collection of related data found in an electronic catalog or index which describes a single book or article in that database.

Refereed Publication - see "Publication - Refereed".

Reference - the area of the library that contains aids for finding information.

Reference Collection - contains informational sources such as indexes, dictionaries, encyclopedias, statistical sources, atlases, almanacs, etc. as well as electronic databases.

Reference Librarian - the librarian assigned to help find needed information using the catalog, online sources, the reference collection and other sources.

References - a list of publications referred to by the author of a paper or book. Also called "Works Cited" or "Bibliography."

Relevance - the close logical relationship or importance of the item/s under consideration to the need.

Renew - to extend the loan period of a book.

Research - a careful and systematic study in a field of knowledge in order to discover facts or ideas.

Reserves - the part of the library where items in great demand and/or material on professor’s reading lists are kept for short-term check out by students.

-- S --

Secondary Source - see "Source - Secondary"

Serial - "any publication issued in successive parts, issued at intervals, and intended to be continued indefinitely."(3)

Series - "volumes usually related to each other in subject matter, issued successively, and having a collective series title." (3)

Source - Primary - original sources on which other research or literary works are based. (Ex. original manuscripts, contemporary records or documents, scientific research reports)

Source - Secondary - published materials where primary sources have been used. (Ex. biographical works, commentaries)

Source - Tertiary - works which list, index, or summarize primary and secondary sources. (Ex. almanacs, chronologies, guidebooks)

Special Collections - area of the library where old and valuable books, historical collections, and university materials are kept under special conditions.

Stacks - the space in the library equipped with shelving for the physical storage of the library’s book, periodical and other collections.

Stopword - "a word which cannot be used as a search term on a particular database." (3) (Ex: a, an, the)

Subject - the word or phrase which describes a theme of a literary work.

Subject Heading - the subject word or phrase assigned to a specific work when cataloging or indexing. (Library of Congress Subject Headings are used primarily by this library)

Subscription Database - a database for which a library or other organization pays a subscription fee to have access to the materials in the database.

-- T --

TEL - Tennessee Electronic Library - provides free online access to selected electronic databases for all libraries and citizens of Tennessee. (Paid for with State and Federal funds)

Text - the printed matter in the body of a work.

Thesaurus - a group or grouping of synonyms or near synonyms of terms. (ex. Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases)

Tilde - "an accent mark in the form of a wavy line (~) as used over letters in Spanish and Portuguese", often used in web addresses. (3)

Title-Page - the page at the beginning of a book which gives the full exact title of the book. This is the title that should be used in a citation.

Trade Journal - "a periodical restricted to the interests of a trade or industry…" (3)

Truncation - using the root word with a truncation symbol in an online search to find all items containing that root and different endings. (Ex. word* (in certain databases) would find word, words, wording, etc.)

-- U --

URL - Uniform Resource Locator - address used to locate remote servers on the Internet.

-- V --

Verso - the backside of the title-page which usually gives the publication information needed for a citation.

Volume - a book distinguished from others by having its own title-page and pagination and bound within a cover. All the issues of a periodical during a certain time period are often bound together to create a volume.

-- W --

Web - World Wide Web - WWW - an interface, using hypertext, to the Internet. This interface allows you to jump from place to place on the Internet.

Wildcard - a symbol, such as a "?" used to represent any possible spelling within a word when doing a search in a database. (Ex. wom?n will find woman and women)

  Bibliography