Glossary of Library Terms

 

Glossary

 

You will encounter the following terms and acronyms, which apply to the library world in general or to the University of Illinois Library in particular, during your training and as you provide service to the Library's public. Refer to this glossary as often as necessary, until you feel comfortable with your understanding of the terms listed. For definitions of more library-related terms, see the glossary at: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/learn/orientation/glossary.html

 

AACR 2: Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed. Adopted internationally as the basis of standardized bibliographic description of all types of materials.

Access:

1. In computer-based information retrieval, the method by which a computer refers to records in a file, dependent upon their arrangement.

2. In archives, the general ability to make use of the records of a government, government agency, or other corporate body. (ALA Glossary)

 

Access points: Text and/or numeric terms used to search bibliographic records. Examples are author, title, subject, ISBN, ISSN, series, call number, notes field, publisher, uniform title,…

Analytic: A bibliographic record for a part of a publication, such as a part of a book, or an individual volume of a multi-volume work or monographic series, where each volume has its own unique title. Analyzed entries are included in catalogs as supplements to the main entry for the whole work.

 

Author: Includes compilers, editors, and composers in addition to the main personal and corporate authors who are responsible for a work.

 

Authority File: The file in the Online Catalog which contains the correct form of author names, series titles and subject headings for searching purposes.

 

Barcode: An array on rectangular bars and spaces that are arranged in a particular fashion to represent elements of data.

 

Barcode Number: The 14-digit number appearing beneath the barcode found on the back of a book (i.e.: the item’s barcode) or on ID cards (i.e.: the patron barcode). Barcode numbers are used to charge, discharge, and renew books on the online computer system.

• UIUC items usually begin with 3 0112

• UIUC patrons usually begin with 2 0111 or 2 0112

 

Bibliographic Record: Comprised of author, title, publisher, date, etc., similar to data found in a catalog card.

 

Boolean Search: Limits or expands a search by combining two or more searches in the same file. Combinations made with and, or, not.

 

Browse Search: Browse searches typically allow searching within a field (such as author, title, or subject), allowing the user to look at entries both in front of and after what s/he has entered. The information entered is searched as a phrase and normally must be entered in the exact order that they appear in the item.

 

Call Number: Also called a shelf number. A combination of numbers and letters that provide a unique description of each item in a library collection. Items are arranged on the book shelves by call number, so the call number is the “address” of the materials on the shelf. The University of Illinois mainly uses the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme. We also use LC and SuDoc numbers here at the U of I for some collections.

Helpful Trivia:

• The U of I some replaced some 016’s with the letter A (example: A.400P42b is found on the shelf where 016.400P42b would be expected).

• B is the same thing as 920 (example B. K29ha is a biography of Helen Keller)

• C comes between 378.999 and 379

• “Il6u” and “IZA1” are two Cutter Numbers for items written by the University of Illinois (so 636.7Il6u would be a book about dogs written here).

• Call numbers are sometimes format specific:

• Q is for Quarto (Q. 016.004 B294C)

• F is for Folio (F. 051 CHLI)

• microfilm

• microfiche

 

Call Slip: The term “call slip” is synonymous with the term “request” in Voyager. Voyager has a separate client to manage call slips.

 

CARLI: The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois which was formed from the consolidation of the Illinois Cooperative Collection Management

Program (ICCMP), the Illinois Digital Academic Library (IDAL) and the Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization (ILCSO) in 2005. See http://www.carli.illinois.edu/

 

Clients: Voyager software has different clients, or modules, for different functions: Cataloging, Circulation, Acquisitions, Call Slip and Report Writing. Each requires that the software be loaded onto the specific machine and staff need to login to use it.

 

Continuation: A serial publication issued less than 3 times a year, i.e. not often enough to be called a "periodical." Usually referred to as a "contin."

 

Corporate entry: A corporate body (company, institution, government agency, etc.) which is listed in a cataloging record as a heading for a publication (e.g., because the publication has no personal author).

 

Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme: The classification system developed in the nineteenth century by Melvil Dewey. It is a highly structured arrangement of all areas of knowledge into numbers ranging for 0 to 999. The Dewey Decimal Classification system is used by all UIUC libraries except for Asian, Health Sciences, Law, Music, and Maps in the Map and Geography Library which all use LC. The Documents Library also uses SuDocs.

 

DNS: Domain Name Server (also called a nameserver). A distributed database used for translating numeric Internet addresses into computer names.

 

Domain Name Server (see DNS)

 

Downloading: Refers to the transfer of search results into a file on a floppy disk or hard drive.

 

DRA: Data Research System. Public Access Catalog software company with several integrated systems chosen by the state (ILCSO libraries) to be the platform for the online catalog up until 2002 http://www.dra.com

 

Dumb barcode label: A generic barcode that contains only a barcode and a human-readable barcode number and optional library name. Because these labels are not associated with any specific item, it requires the library to make an entry in the barcode file to link the barcode to the item’s holding information.

 

EISi: Endeavor Information Systems, Inc.

 

Endeavor: An Illinois-based company from whom the ILCSO consortium has purchased an integrated management system. Voyager is an Endeavor product.

 

FBR: Full Bibliographic Record. A former component of the Online Catalog which contained, in its Bibliographic File, the same information as on a catalog card (minus call number) for most books cataloged since 1975 and most serial publications cataloged since 1977. In its Authority File, it contained the correct forms of names and subject headings which one must use for searching purposes. The Holdings file indicated which libraries owned a particular item. The Key File identified occurrences of words or phrases in the system.

 

Help: In Staff Side searching in Voyager, help is available several ways: 1) from the pull-down menu at the top which allows you to search for topics. 2) from the icons at the top of the screen, 3) by using the function 1 (F1) key for context-sensitive assistance.

 

Hierarchy: The command is available only in the Cataloging module of Voyager. It allows you to see the relationships between the Bibliographic Record which identifies the monograph or serial, the Holdings Record, which indicate how many copies are held by the library with its call number and location, and the item record which gives the copy and volume information.

 

IBIS: (Illinois Bibliographic Information Service). The former UIUC name for the journal reference subsystem of IO+. It was a set of electronic indexes in a variety of subject areas.

 

ICCMP: (Illinois Cooperative Collection Management Program) ICCMP was a statewide

consortium that focused on cooperative collection development in academic libraries in

Illinois. It is one of the organizations that form the CARLI consortium.

 

IDAL: (Illinois Digital Academic Library) This initiative had the goal of building a collection of full-text and full-image electronic resources that support instruction, study, and research by students, faculty and staff in all eligible Illinois institutions of higher education. It is one of the organizations that form the CARLI consortium.

 

III (Innovative Interfaces, Inc.): III is a company that produces one of the more popular library catalogs in the U.S. UIUC refers to III’s various products collectively as, simply “III” or “Innovative.” UIUC used Innovative products for central serials check-in from the mid-1990’s until 2004, and from 2001 to 2004 used Innovative for acquisitions as well.

 

ILCSO: Illinet Library Computer System Organization, the statewide network for the online catalog called Illinet Online. In 2005, joined with other consortiums to form CARLI.

 

I-Share: The online catalog used by over 50 libraries in Illinois (see ILCSO). The UIUC Online Catalog is a subset of I-Share. Sometimes referred to as the U of I’s OPAC, Voyager, I-Share Online also provides resource sharing services to ILCSO libraries.

 

Interface: The program which allows the user to search a database by responding to questions or filling in boxes rather than by entering commands.

 

Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery: is the Interlibrary Loan Department for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library. http://www.library.uiuc.edu/irrc

 

IP address: IP stands for "Internet Protocol". An IP Address is a four part number used to

 

IRRC: See Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery. IRRC is the former name of this department.

 

ISBN: International Standard Book Number. A unique ten-digit number assigned to each edition of every title published. It identifies the publisher, title, edition, and the volume number. ISBN numbers are searchable in the online catalog.

 

ISCC: Integrated Systems Coordinating Committee: Leadership group for Management of the Library's integrated systems, including III, and Voyager.

 

ISSN: International Standard Serial Number. A unique eight-digit number assigned to each serial publication. ISSN numbers are searchable in the online catalog.

 

Keyword Search: Allows searches to be entered without knowing fields or exact order in the record.

 

LAN: Local Area Network: A network that links computers so that they can communicate with one another and share resources. A LAN can range in size from two or three computers to hundreds.

 

LC: Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.). In addition to its responsibilities to the U.S. Congress, LC serves the library community in numerous ways. It receives and catalogs all materials copyrighted in the U.S. It creates and sells cards for each title it catalogs. The LC classification system, also nicknamed "LC" --a combination of letters and numbers--is used by the UIUC Law, Music and Asian Libraries and by the Map and Geography Library for maps. In addition, the Health Sciences Library uses an adaptation of LC, created by the National Library of Medicine. http://www.loc.gov/

 

LCS: Library Computer System. The former short record component of the Online Catalog, used for known-item searching and for circulation of library materials. Gave author, title, call number, date and place of publication, location, holdings, and circulation status for materials at more than 30 academic libraries in Illinois, including UIUC.

 

LCSH: Library of Congress Subject Headings. The headings used by the Library of Congress which, along with headings from the National Agriculture Library and the National Library of Medicine, constitute most of the subject part of the Authority File in the Online Catalog. The print listing is commonly called the Big Red Books.

 

MARC: Machine-Readable Cataloging. An international standard format for the arrangement of cataloging information so that it can be stored and retrieved using computer tapes. The MARC record is one of the bibliographic displays accessible in the online catalog.

 

MFHD: (AKA Muffhead) Marc Format for Holdings Data: Standard for coding holdings. Call numbers will be stored in one field, with prefixes and class numbers in separate fields.

 

MILO: Mainframe interface for libraries online. Former name for the online catalog interface.

 

Monograph: A work composed of one or several parts, unique and complete in itself, not published serially.

 

Monographic series: A group of related monographs, each of which has a unique title as well as the series title which applies to the group as a whole. Each item of a monographic series also has its own call number. Monographic series are searchable in the online catalog by series title and by individual title.

 

Nameserver: See DNS

 

NETID: Your Network ID (or NetID) is a name used to identify you on the campus network. It is assigned to you when you first enter the University, and it remains associated with you throughout your time here. Due to the nature of the various campus services which rely on the NetID, it must be created for you, and may not be altered, except in the case of a legal name change. Your NetID password is a combination of 6 to 8 letters, numbers, and other characters that is used to confirm your identity when accessing the network and some services on the network. Your Network ID and password are used to access the network via CCSO's dialup service, use computers in the CCSO Instructional Computing Sites, and to use the UI-Integrate Self-Service (http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/register/ui2_index.html) for class registration. Your E-mail/Web Account logon will be the same as your Network ID. Your E-mail/Web Account password will initially be the same as your Network ID password, but it is stored in a different location. When you change one, you must also change the other if you wish for them to be identical. If you forget your NetID password or CCSO UNIX account password, you can have either set to anything you wish at the Account Services Desk in the CCSO Resource Center (1420 DCL, 333-6760) weekdays from 8:30 to 5:00. They will need your University ID (or other picture ID) to help you. Also, a fax form (https://www-s.uiuc.edu/bluestem/ccso-sec.jpeg ) is available for faculty, staff, and off-campus students.

 

OCLC: Online Computer Library Center (Dublin, Ohio). A bibliographic network based on an online database of approximately 28 million cataloging records from its 5500 members, including those of the UIUC Library since 1975. It now serves more than 18,000 libraries in 52 countries. The OCLC database is used for cataloging, for reference work, and for interlibrary loan. It is the world's largest and most comprehensive database of bibliographic information. URL: http://www.oclc.org Also see PRISM (the interlibrary loan aspect of OCLC).

 

OPAC: Online Public Access Catalog. The library catalog in its computer (digital) form.

 

Periodical: A serial publication appearing indefinitely at regular or stated intervals, generally more frequently than annually. (For acquisition check-in purposes, a publication issued 3 or more times a year). Examples: Time Magazine, JASIS, Art and literature: an international review.

 

PRISM: OCLC service which provides easier editing and enhanced searching for cataloging and resource sharing (interlibrary loan).

 

Relevancy Search: Keyword searches in Voyager display results in relevance ranked order. Voyager employs the Boolean operator "OR" when a user enters multiple search items for a Keyword search. The factors which effect relevance ranking include:

1. Proximity of terms in the records (not across subfields). Proximity within 5 words receives more weight.

2. The number of times the term appears in the database. The term with fewer appearances in the database receives a higher weight.

3. MARC field weighting as assigned in System Administrator.

4. The * and + operators assigned to the terms by the searcher. The asterisk raises the relevancy of a term. The plus sign requires the term to be in the results.

5. Each record found by a search will have a score calculated using these four factors and will be ranked against a theoretical perfect score. Evaluation of the resulting list of titles will show that records higher on the list will have more overall relevance points and records further down the list will have fewer overall relevance points, especially records that include only one of multiple search terms.

 

Request promotion: Voyager functionality that automatically promotes a local request out to the ILCSO Universal Catalog to be forwarded to a call slip queue at an owning ILCSO library. The request has now become a UB (Universal Borrowing) request. Promotion will occur if a call slip request is unfilled or has not been filled within 3 days.

 

RLIN: Research Libraries Information Network (Stanford, Calif.) A bibliographic network based on a database of close to 14 million cataloging records. The UIUC Library used RLIN for cataloging tiles in East Asian Languages, and for reference purposes. Access is only available from the staff terminals.

Serial: A publication issued in successive, numbered parts over an indefinite period, such as a newspaper, magazine, annual report.

 

Series: Items that are related to each other by the fact that they have, in addition to their own individual titles, a collective title applying to the group as a whole. The item may or may not be numbered. (see also Monographic Series).

 

Serial record: The portion of the UIUC card catalog which contains bibliographic information for serial publications cataloged before 1979. The holdings and location information given for these titles are no longer current -- consult the online catalog.

 

Shelflist: The part of the UIUC card catalog which arranges cards by Dewey Decimal call number rather than by author or title (i.e. a classified catalog). The shelflist was used formerly to give location and holdings information, but was replaced for this purpose in 1978 by the online catalog.

 

Smart Barcode Label: A barcode label that contains a barcode, human-readable barcode numbers, library name, and selected bibliographic information pertaining to a specification. The barcode number is pre-linked to the appropriate item’s holding information, so the library does not have to perform additional data entry.

 

Splash page: The page of a Web site that the user sees first before being given the option to continue to the main content of the site. Splash pages are used to promote a company, service or product or are used to inform the user of what kind of software or browser is necessary in order to view the rest of the site's pages. Often a splash page will consist of animated graphics and sounds that entice the user into exploring the rest of the Web site. Some splash pages will bring the user to the main Web site automatically, and some require the user to click on a link that will load the main page. From Webopedia. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/splash_page.html The Library’s online catalog uses a splash page at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/catalog for three reasons: 1) to orient users to options available, 2) to shorten the URL available for the catalog, and 3) to provide an option for giving users current information about the catalog, as in news items or announcements that can be updated frequently.

 

Staff-side clients: Voyager software has different clients, or modules, for different functions: Cataloging, Circulation, Acquisitions, Call Slip and Report Writing. Each requires that the software be loaded onto the specific machine and staff need to login to use it.

 

Staff-side searching: In general, search across all of the staff clients or modules, Cataloging, Circulation, and Acquisitions, is the same. Each module also has some unique features that can't be applied to other modules, such as the hierarchy search in the Cataloging Module.

 

Stopword: A word which is omitted from the index of a database. Stopwords are very common words that normally add little meaning to the subject content of the document being indexed. Since stopwords are not indexed, they cannot be used as search terms, but will appear when you print documents from the database. Some examples of stopwords are: a, an, the, al, el, den, det, de, di, en, et, het, een, eene, le, la, l', l', les, un, une, der, die, das, ein, eine, ta, he, ho, ha, il, lo, i, gli, gl, o, os, um, uma, una, ett. There are NO stopwords in Voyager.

 

Stub record: “Stub” patron records for non-UIUC users (i.e., users affiliated with other ILCSO libraries who have checked out UIUC materials or who still owe fines for UIUC items). “Stub” records remain in the UIUC database until all items owned by UIUC are discharged from the patron’s “stub” record and all fines owed to UIUC have been resolved.

 

SuDocs: The classification system used by the U.S. Superintendent of Documents. Used since 1980 for most U.S. Government publications received at the UIUC Library.

 

Truncation: In an online database, a searching technique which broadens the search to allow for variant spellings or forms of a word or name.

 

UIUC: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

Uniform title: The title used for cataloging purposes when a work has appeared under more than one title, or when the work being cataloged is of a collective nature, such a "Complete Works".

Universal Borrowing: Request functionality in Voyager that allows patrons to request items from the libraries within the state who participate in ILCSO.

 

Universal Catalog: The union catalog of the 50+ libraries in the state that belong to the ILCSO consortium. Individuals can search individual libraries or the universal catalog, which includes the holdings of all the libraries. A complicated formula determines how records are de-duplicated.

 

Voyager: An integrated management system for libraries by Endeavor, including public access catalog, cataloging and authority control, acquisitions and serials control, circulation and course reserve, reporting, system administration, interlibrary loan, and media scheduling.

 

WebVoyager: Endeavor’s name for its web-based online public access catalog.

 

Z39.50: (pronounced: zee 39 50) A “computer-to-computer communications protocol designed to support searching for and retrieving information. Using the protocol, a computer operating as a client can submit a query to another computer operating as an information server. Software on the server performs a search in a database (or in more than one) and creates a result set of records that meet the query's criteria. The server returns records from the result set to the client for processing. Z39.50 separates the user interface from the search engine and makes possible a consistent view of information that comes from disparate data sources.” - http://www.ilcso.uiuc.edu/Web/Docs/Z3950.html

 

For definitions of more library-related terms, see the glossary at: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/learn/orientation/glossary.html

 

Last updated: August 2005