Information Literacy Instructional Program

Information Literacy Learning Guides

Glossary of Library Terms

Abstract -- A summary, usually of a journal article. Many of our journal databases include abstracts of articles.

Almanac -- A reference book published annually containing various facts. It is useful for locating brief information and statistical data.

Alphabetical -- Arranged by order of the alphabet.

Annotation - -Unlike an abstract, which is an objective description or summary of a work, an annotation is a critical or subjective evaluation of a piece of work, usually included in a bibliography or citation.

Autobiography -- The story of someone's life, as written by that person, such as the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Bibliography -- A list of books and/or journal articles, usually appearing at the end of a book or journal article. It can lead to additional sources of information.

Biography -- A book about a person written by another person.

Book Stacks -- The shelves where books, either reference or circulating, are located.

Boolean Operator or Boolean Logic - - Boolean operators, otherwise known as logical operators, are used to construct more complex searches in a database. They help make a search more accurate. There are 3 logical operators: AND, OR and NOT.

Call Number -- A group of letters and numbers, given to books in the library. Books are arranged in the library by call number. See Library of Congress Classification Online.

Citation -- Written information about a book or journal article. A complete citation can includes information such as author, page numbers, volume number and publication date.

Dictionary -- A book composed of an alphabetical listing of words with their meanings. There are general dictionaries of English and other languages and specialized subject dictionaries in fields such as business, law, medicine, etc.

Encyclopedia -- A reference book, either general or subject specific, which provides background information and specific facts.

Database - - A database in an organized collection of computer records. The most common type of databases located at Estrella Mountain Information Commons consists of records describing articles in periodicals otherwise known as a periodical index. By entering search terms related to your topic, you will be able to retrieve information about articles of interest from the database.

Full Text Index -- A journal or newspaper index which displays the entire article on the computer screen.

Index - - An index is a guide to the contents of a file, document, or a group of documents. An index is used to point to the contents of something. For example, there are indexes in the back of books that describe and point to the contents of that book. There are also very large indexes that describe the contents of journals and give you enough information to locate an article in a journal. Indexes are usually arranged by subject, author or keyword. They can come in both paper and electronic form.

Interlibrary Loan - - Interlibrary loan is a mechanism for different libraries to share materials. Students at Estrella Mountain may request books and materials from other Maricopa Community College Libraries or from libraries around the country.

Journal -- A magazine published by an institution or group. It is more scholarly than magazines found at newsstands. Several online databases allow you to select journal by limiting the search. For example, Infotrac allows you to select 'referred articles'.

Journal Index -- A listing of articles, arranged alphabetically by subject. Indexes can be general or related to a specific discipline, such as Business, Education or Nursing. Journal indexes are very useful for looking for the most current information.

Keyword Searching - - A keyword search directs the computer to look for a word or a combination of words from the author, title, or subject fields in a record.

Loan Period - - The amount of time you may borrow a book or other item from the library. The time varies depending on the type of material borrowed and the status of the borrower. The usual loan period at Estrella is 14 days.

Magazine - - Although the terms periodical, journal, serial and magazine have slightly different definitions, you will likely hear them used interchangeably. These are works that come out on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, annually) and contain articles written by various authors.

A journal contains peer reviewed articles written by scholars while a magazine contains more popular articles often written by journalists. The terms periodical and serial are more generic and refer to all types of these materials.

Online Catalog - -An electronic or digitized version of a library's card catalog. See : Estrella Mountain Online Public Catalog.

Debbie Anderson, librarian
Estrella Mountain Community College  
2001 - 2002