Library and Research Terms

bibliography

(1) A list of sources, usually appearing at the end of a research paper, an article, a book, or a chapter in a book. The list documents sources used in the work and points out sources that might be useful for further research. Entries provide publication information so that interested readers can track down and examine sources for themselves. (2) A list of recommended readings on a given topic, usually sorted into subcategories.

search engine

(1) A program that allows users to search for material on the Internet or on a Web site. (2) The search function of a database.

reference

(1) A source used in research and mentioned by a researcher in a paper or an article. (2) In libraries, a part of the library's collection that includes encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, and other publications that provide useful overviews, common practices, and facts.

cite

(1) As a verb, to provide a reference to a source. (2) As a noun, a shortened form of citation. (Note: This term is frequently confused with site, as in Web site.)

index

(1) In a book, an alphabetical listing of topics and the pages on which information about them can be found. The index is located at the back of the book. (2) A publication that lists articles or other publications by topic. (3) An alphabetical listing of elements that can be found in a database.

hits

(1) The results called up by a search of a database, a Web site, or the Internet. (2) The number of times a Web site has been visited. Web site owners track hits as a measure of the popularity of a site.

blog

(short for Weblog) is a site that contains dated text or multimedia entries usually written and maintained by one person, with comments contributed by readers. Though some are personal diaries and others are devoted to partisan politics, many journalists and academics maintain __________that cover topics of interest to researchers. ________frequently provide links to other sources.

wiki

A collaborative Web site with content that is written by many contributors and that may change frequently.

database

A collection of information organized for retrieval. In libraries, databases usually contain references to sources retrievable by a variety of means. Databases may contain bibliographic citations, descriptive abstracts, full-text documents, or a combination.

anthology

A collection of writings compiled into a book. The selections are usually connected by a common topic, time period, or group of authors.

full text

A complete document contained in a database or on a Web site. (Note: Illustrations and diagrams may be omitted from a full-text document.) Some databases search full-text documents; others search only the citation or abstract.

citation manager software

A computer program that stores bibliographic references and notes in a personal database and that can automatically format bibliographies, reference lists, or lists of works cited based on a particular documentation style (such as MLA, APA, Chicago, or CSE, for example). Such programs may generate inaccurate or incomplete citations, so writers should proofread all results.

subscription database

A database that can be accessed only by paying a fee. Most of the online materials that libraries provide free to their patrons are paid for by the library through a subscription. Often the material provided in a _______________ is more selective and quality-controlled than sources that are freely available on the Web. Because these databases are often provided through a license agreement, they are sometimes referred to as licensed databases.

professional journal

A journal containing scholarly articles addressed to a particular professional audience such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, or accountants. Professional journals differ from trade publications, which usually do not include in-depth research articles.

scholarly journal

A journal that is primarily addressed to scholars, often focusing on a particular discipline. Scholarly journals are often refereed publications and for some purposes may be considered more authoritative than magazines. Articles in scholarly journals usually are substantial in length, use specialized language, contain footnotes or endnotes, and are written by academic researchers rather than by journalists.

refereed publication

A publication for which every submission is screened through a peer review process. ________________ are considered authoritative because experts have reviewed the material in advance of publication to determine its quality.

periodical

A publication issued at regular intervals. may be magazines, journals, newspapers, or newsletters.

citation

A reference to a book, an article, a Web page, or another source that provides enough information about the source to allow a reader to retrieve it. ____________ in a paper must be given in a standard format (such as MLA or APA), depending on the discipline in which the paper is written.

catalog

A set of records for the location information and other details about materials owned by a library. Most are online, though a library may have all or part of its _______ on printed cards. Online ___________ usually can be searched by author, title, subject heading, or keyword; search results provide a basic description of the item (book, journal title, video, or other) and a call number.

secondary source

A source that comments on, analyzes, or otherwise relies on primary sources. An article in a newspaper that reports on a scientific discovery or a book that analyzes a writer's work is a secondary source.

abstract

A summary of a work's contents that usually appears at the beginning of a scholarly or technical article. Databases and indexes often contain __________ that can help you decide whether an article is relevant for your purposes.

wildcard

A symbol used to substitute any letter or combination of letters in a search word or phrase. This may replace a single letter (as in wom*n, to search for women or woman in one search) or any number of letters (as in psycholog* to search for psychology, psychologist, and psychological). Typical _______ symbols are asterisks, question marks, and exclamation points.

magazine

A type of periodical containing articles that are usually written for general and popular audiences. are sold on newsstands or by subscription and earn a part of their revenue through advertising.

journal

A type of periodical usually sold by subscription and containing articles written for specialized or scholarly audiences.

subject heading

A word or phrase assigned to an item in a database to describe the item's content. This content information can help a researcher evaluate whether a book or an article is worth further examination. ________________ also suggest alternative terms or phrases to use in a search. Most academic library catalogs use the Library of Congress Subject Headings to describe the subjects of books in the catalog. Other databases create their own list, or thesaurus, of accepted descriptive terms. In some databases, subject headings are called descriptors.

keyword

A word used to search a library database, a Web site, or the Internet. Keyword searches locate results by matching the search word to an item in the resource being searched. Keyword searches often retrieve broad results through many database fields. However, researchers who perform a keyword search using terms that are different from those used by the database may not retrieve all of the information in the database related to their topic. For example, a search using the keyword third world will find items containing that term but may not include related items using the term developing countries.

URL

An Internet address. Most consist of a protocol type (such as http), a domain name and extension (such as hackerhandbooks.com), and a series of letters and/or numbers to identify an exact resource or page within the domain. Many electronic databases have long _____ that are generated in the course of a search and vary each time a search is conducted. In some cases, a database record may contain a "persistent URL" (PURL) that can be used to locate the item again.

literature review

An article or paper describing published research on a particular topic. The purpose of a ____________ (sometimes called a review article) is to select the most important publications on the topic, sort them into categories, and comment on them to provide a quick overview of leading scholarship in that area. Published articles often include a ______________ section to place their research in the context of other work in the field. Courses sometimes require students to complete "literature reviews": collect, sort, and evaluate what has been published on a particular topic.

record

An entry in a database or a library catalog. _______ contain the details about the books, articles, or other sources that users will find in a database.

corporate author

An organization, an agency, an institution, or a corporation identified as the author of a work.

primary source

An original source, such as a speech, a diary, a novel or other literary work, a legislative bill, a laboratory study, a field research report, or an eyewitness account. While not necessarily more reliable than a secondary source, a primary source has the advantage of being closely related to the information it conveys and as such is often considered essential for research, particularly in history. In the sciences, reports of new research written by the scientists who conducted it are considered this kind of source.

truncation

In search engine or database queries, a shortened version of a search term. In some search engines and databases, the truncated term plus a wildcard symbol (such as an asterisk or a question mark) can be used to search all possible variations of the word.

scholarly

Often used to describe books, periodicals, or articles that are written for a specialized audience of academics or researchers. These sources are generally formal in style and include references to other published sources.

popular sources

Often used to refer to sources written for a general audience; not scholarly.

peer review

Part of the publication process for scholarly publications in which a group of experts examines a document to determine whether it is worthy of publication. Journals and other publications use a peer review process — usually arranged so that reviewers do not know who the author of the document is — to assess articles for quality and relevance.

trade publications

Periodical publications, such as magazines or newsletters, covering specialized news and information for members of a particular profession or industry. do not include in-depth research articles.

descriptors

Terms assigned by compilers of a database to describe the subject content of a document. are chosen so that all of the work on a particular topic can be found with a single word or phrase, even though there may be many different ways of expressing the same idea. For example, the PsycINFO database uses academic achievement as a ________ to help researchers locate texts on the subject of scholastic achievement or grade-point average.

holdings

The exact items a library owns. The term typically refers to the specific issues of a magazine or journal in a library.

call number

The letter and number combination that indicates where a book is kept on a library's shelves. Call numbers are assigned using a system that locates books on the same subject next to one another for easy browsing. Most academic libraries (including SC's Babson Library) use the Library of Congress (LC) system; public libraries typically use the Dewey decimal system.

boolean operators

The words "and", "or", and "not" used in search queries to relate the contents of two or more sets of data in different ways. When search terms are combined with and, the search results contain only those items that include all the terms. When or is used, the results include items that contain any one of the terms. Not is used to exclude items containing a term.

tags

User-supplied words or phrases describing the subject of a document, image, or video. Frequently used in social media forums such as Flickr. the wording of ________ is often determined by individual users.