Library Vocabulary

Circulation

Barcode Number
The 14-digit number appearing beneath the barcode found in the beginning or end papers of a book. Barcode numbers are used to charge, discharge, and renew books.

Check Out
To borrow library materials for use outside the library.

Circulation Desk
A service desk where books and other materials are loaned or charged out to library users. Library materials which do not circulate (reference books and periodicals, for example) should be used within the library. Marsha Becker is the Circulation Manager.

Due Date
The date by which your borrowed materials should be returned to the library.

Fine
The amount of money, which is owed by the borrower if his/her book is not returned by the due date.

Hold
A library user may place a hold on a book charged out to another person; this ensures that the person placing the hold will be next in line to receive the book when the book is returned.

Interlibrary Loan Services
Interlibrary lending and borrowing services provide access to materials that cannot be found in the Taylor University libraries. To borrow such materials, check with a reference librarian or complete an interlibrary loan request. Jo Ann Cosgrove is the Interlibrary Loan Manager.

Overdue
Materials which are not returned to the library by the due date are considered overdue and subject to fines.

Recall
Library users may place recalls on books charged out to other people. The people to whom the materials are charged are notified by mail that another library user wants the book. Recalled books must be returned within a short period of time, usually a week.

Renewal
An extension of the loan period for charged library materials. Renewals may be handled in person at the circulation desk or by phone.

Reserve Reading
A selection of specific books, periodical articles, videotapes, and other materials which faculty have indicated that students must read or view for a particular course. These materials are usually kept together in one area of the library (at the circulation desk) and circulate for a short period of time only. To locate reserve materials, you may use the course reserve module in the Library Catalog, ask at the circulation desk, or look up a title in your reserve-reading list.

Reference

Abstract
A summary of an article or book usually highlighting important points. Abstracts found in databases are useful for evaluating the articles. In scholarly journals, the abstract usually appears at the beginning of the article.

Almanac
An annual publication that contains calendars, statistics and general information.

Alphabetical
The arrangement by order of the alphabet.

Annotation
A note that describes, explains, or evaluates a particular document.

Archives
An organized body of documents maintained and preserved as part of the record-keeping process. The Taylor University Archives is located on the east side of the Galleria in the Zondervan Library.

Atlas
A collection of maps.

Bibliography
A bibliography is a list of books, periodical articles or other materials. Published bibliographies on specific subjects are often found in the reference collection. Bibliographies will frequently include annotations.

Biography
A written account of a person's life.

Bound Periodicals
Several issues of a magazine or journal arranged together, usually consecutive dates, under one hard cover.

Citation
Information, which fully identifies a publication: a complete citation usually includes author, title, name of journal (if the citation is to an article) or publisher (if to a book), and date. Often pages, volumes and other information will be included in a citation.

Directory
A systematically organized list of persons, businesses, organizations, etc. that provides addresses, telephone numbers and information, usually in alphabetical order.

Gazeteer/Gazetteer
A dictionary of geographical information about places; may be worldwide or local.

Peer Reviewed
Articles that are evaluated by at least one subject expert before they are accepted into publication.

Periodical Indexes and Abstracts
Periodical indexes list articles, which have appeared in journals, magazines, or newspapers. They list author, title, name of periodical, volume, pages and date of publication. Abstracts are indexes that also contain summaries of the content of the article. Both indexes and abstracts are found in reference departments. They may be in print form, or online, available through the Zondervan Home Page.

Primary Source
Manuscripts, records or documents that provide original research or documentation.

Reference Service
Research help that is available in person, by phone, by e-mail and by chat.

Reference Collection
A variety of networked, Internet accessible, and printed library materials used by reference librarians to help people find information or to do research. Reference collections contain many sources of information, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, directories, or statistical compilations. They may also have bibliographies, indexes, and abstracts. Printed reference materials usually do not leave the library. Networked reference materials are available from the Zondervan Library web page.

Reference Librarian
Reference librarians are specialists in the field of information retrieval. Generally they have a Masters degree in library science, and many have other graduate degrees as well. They are available at reference desks to help you find the information you are looking for.

Reference Service
Research help that is available in person, by phone, by e-mail and by chat.

Synonym
A word that means the same thing as another word.

Locating Materials

Call Numbers
Each item in a library collection is classified in a subject area by some classification system. These call numbers are placed on the spine of the book to locate it in the stacks. Call numbers are entered on the records in the Zondervan Library Catalog. At Taylor we use Dewey Decimal call numbers.

Card Catalog
Card catalogs are pieces of furniture containing drawers filled with cards that provide information about materials in the collection. The card catalog is the predecessor of the online catalog. Most libraries have moved away from card catalogs, but occasionally you may encounter a card catalog in larger or specialized institutions. A catalog is a list of all the items in a specific collection.

Controlled Vocabulary
An established list of terms (see Thesaurus) used to assign subject headings or descriptors. An example of a controlled vocabulary is the Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Cross Reference
A term used in catalogs, thesauruses and indexes to lead you from one form of entry to another (e.g., American poets see Poets--American).

Internet
A worldwide network of computers that can be accessed via the campus computer network. The Internet allows local computer users to find and use databases on computers of other academic institutions, research institutes, private companies and government agencies.

Library of Congress (http://lcweb.loc.gov)
Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world and provides centralized cataloging data for libraries, which includes the Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Keyword Searching
Keyword searching allows a user to construct a search by looking for a word or combination of words from the author, title, or subject fields in the Zondervan Library Catalog.

Library Home Page
A Web site that provides access to a large number of library resources (indexes, journals, and reference materials, for example) available via the campus computer network. The Library Home Page is available on library terminals and on the Internet.

Online Library Catalog
A computerized catalog that contains records for the Taylor University Library collection. Lehman Library (Ft. Wayne) records may also be found in the Online Catalog.

Remote Access
Accessibility to library services and information from outside the physical library building.

Search Strategy
A logical series of steps for planning and preparing an efficient way to execute data collection on a specific topic. A search strategy may vary upon the topic, the literature in a particular discipline and the type of information needed.

Special Collection
A collection of old or rare materials that support a particular library's field of interest. At Taylor this is the Brown Collection located in the library.

Stacks
The stacks are the part of the library, which houses the physical collection. Books and periodicals are arranged on shelves in the stacks.

Subject Headings
Words or phrases assigned to books and articles and used to index these items by topic. Determining the correct headings for a specific database or catalog is an important part of effective research. See also Thesaurus.

Thesaurus
A list of all the subject headings or descriptors used in a particular database, catalog, or index. The thesaurus for the Zondervan Library Catalog is called Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Verso
The back side of the page in a book.

Wildcard
A symbol that stands for one or more unspecified characters.

World Wide Web
A client-server information system that uses the Internet to access computers containing millions of hypertext documents. For definitions of World Wide Web and Internet terminology, see World Wide Terms and Acronyms, below.

Kinds of Materials

E-journal or Electronic journal
A copy of a print journal with full-text articles that may be read off the Internet. Some e-journals are published only on the Web.

Full text
The complete text of an article or book available in an online database.

GIF Files (Graphic Interchange Format)
A graphic file type found electronically.

Media
Films, tapes, DVDs and other audio-visual materials that require the use of special listening or viewing equipment.

Microforms
Documents, often ones that are bulky or liable to deteriorate rapidly, which have been photographed and reduced in size to reduce the storage space required and to preserve them. Common formats for microforms are microfilm and microfiche. College catalogs, telephone books, newspapers, magazines and government documents are commonly available in microform.

JPEG or JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
A graphic file type used on Web pages.

Journal
A periodical, usually written for and by scholars, professional societies, organizations.

Magazine
A periodical publication for general interest and includes news, current events and popular topics.

Periodicals
Publications, which are issued at least twice a year, including journals, magazines and newspapers. Current periodicals are those which have recently arrived and are usually kept in loose binders, or on open shelves. Bound periodicals are back issues, which have been sent to the bindery, covered with a binding, and placed in the stacks. Records for periodical titles are in the Zondervan Library Catalog. Some periodicals are now available through the Library Home Page. They are generally called electronic journals or e-journals.

Serials
Publications that appear more or less regularly--daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or biannually, for example.

Computer-Based Indexes and Catalogs

Accession Number
A unique number or combination of letters and numbers assigned to each record in a database.

Asynchronous
Recipient need not be at his/her computer to receive a message that you send.

Boolean Logic
British mathematician, George Boole (1815-1864) developed a means of reducing logic using algebra. Boolean logic is a method of developing search statements by using set theory and Venn diagrams.

Boolean Searching
See also Operators

CD-ROM
A format, computer-based, that means Compact Disk - Read Only Memory, used for the storing and reading of information. CD-ROMs are searchable from a personal computer and a CD player. Indexes, abstracts, and supplemental text materials may be available on CD-ROM.

Database
A collection of information arranged into individual records to be searched by computer. Often licensed through an agreement with the library for purchase/lease.

Database Vendor
The name of a commercial company providing information databases for a fee. (e.g. Lexis--Nexis, EBSCO)

Descriptors
A word or phrase used as a subject that describe the content in books, articles, or other materials for the purpose of organization by topic. See also Subject Headings and Thesaurus.

Entry
See Record.

Field
A part of a record used for a particular category of data. For instance, the title (ti) field displays the title for each record in the database. Some of the other fields in various databases are author (au), journal (jn) and abstract (ab). The Zondervan Library Catalog contains additional fields that give the description, call number, location, holdings, and circulation status of an item at Taylor.

Format
The organization or arrangement of information in a particular display or print mode; the type or manner in which information is provided, displayed or retrieved.

Holdings
A set of fields in the Library Catalog in serial records that shows exactly which years and volumes of that serial are available at Taylor. Records for multi-volume books also contain a holdings field.

Menu
Choices and commands that are displayed on the screen and can be selected by the user.

Operators (Boolean)
Words such as AND (intersection), OR (union), and NOT (difference) that are used to combine search terms to broaden or narrow the results of a keyword search. Combining terms using operators is sometimes called Boolean searching defines the relationship between words in a search statement.

Record
A collection of related data, arranged in fields and treated as a unit. The data for each article in a database makes up a record. The complete information for each item in the Library Catalog is also a record.

Truncation
Typing a special symbol at the end of a word to retrieve all possible endings of that word. If you wish to truncate a word while searching the Cornell Library Catalog, use the question mark (?); other databases may use the pound sign (#), the asterisk (*), or another symbol. For example, k=forest? in the Cornell Library Catalog retrieves the words forest, forestry, forests, forested, etc.

World Wide Web Terms and Acronyms

Browser
Software that displays files on the Internet via HTTP. A browser is sometimes called client.

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language, the rules for formatting a Web page so that a Web browser displays the page properly.

Home Page
The first point of entry to a Web site; help and a gateway to information is often available there. See http://www.taylor.edu/ for example.

HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol: The rules that govern the transmission of Web documents from one computer to another via the Internet

Hypertext
Documents containing embedded links (hyperlinks) to other documents or other parts of the same document

Internet Explorer
A browser developed by Microsoft

JPEG, GIF
Files that process and display data as visual images on Web pages

Plug-in
Extra software required to run some multimedia applications on the Internet. (e.g. Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Protocols
Tets of communication rules that allow clients and servers to communicate accurately with each other

Search engine
Software that allows searching of the content of Internet sites.

Server
A computer that sends requested information to a client.

URL
Uniform Resource Locator, the address of a document on the World Wide Web. Browsers allow you to enter a known address of a Web
server or a specific document within that server. Addresses commonly begin with http://

Web browser
The client software you use to find and display Web pages

Web client
The computer and software you use to access Web pages

Web page
A single hypertext document written in HTML--Hypertext Markup Language

Web server
The computer and software that you contact on the Internet to access a Web site

Web site
A collection of linked Web pages on a Web server

World Wide Web (the Web, WWW, W3)
A client-server information system that uses the Internet to access computers containing millions of hypertext documents.

*The original source for this document is the Reference Services, IRIS,
Cornell University Library. This original has been modified with permission
for use by the Zondervan Library of Taylor University.