Glossary of Research Terms

Abstract – A summary of a journal, magazine article or book. Use abstracts to determine if the content of the document is relevant to your topic.

Annotated bibliography – A bibliography containing citation information, which includes commentary or a brief summary on each source.

Almanac: A publication, usually an annual, containing useful facts and statistical information.

Anchor (html term): a section of hyperlinked text or graphic, which appears in a Web document and when clicked, causes the web browser to move to the linked web site.

Annual: An item that is published once a year.

Anthology: collection of selected literary or literary works.

Archives – A collection of documents, media and other items that usual have historic value. Archives can also be referred to as Special Collection.

Article – A written essay or report on a subject, usually associated with periodicals or journals, but also found in books and encyclopedias.

Author: The writer of a book or article. The author may be one person, several people, or a "corporate body" such as a government agency, professional association, or company.

Bibliographic Record (Bib Record): A record that describes an item in the library′s collection; the bib record includes call number, author, title, publication information, paging, subject headings, etc.

Bibliography – A listing of materials used (books, articles, media, etc.) in the research of a project, usually presented at the end of the paper or book. Also, a collection of recommended reading on a particular subject or person

Biennial: Issued in alternate years. Thus, published once every two years. Compare to Semiannual.

Biography – An account of a person′s life, in whole or in part.

Boolean Operators: Use of the logical operators AND, OR, and NOT to indicate a relationship between search terms. Allow searcher to broaden or narrow search results.

Bound periodicals – Issues, often constituting a volume, of periodicals that have been bound together in chronological order.

Bimonthly: Published in alternate months or six times a year. Compare to Semimonthly.

Biweekly: Published twice a month or every two weeks. Compare Semiweekly.

Browser: A World Wide Web program for navigating the Internet. Most browsers display graphics and formatted pages and let you click to hyperlinks to jump form page to another. Netscape and Explorer are browsers.

Call number – A unique combination of numbers and letters that fully identifies an item in the library′s collection and allows for easy location

Case Sensitive: Capital letters (upper case) retrieve only upper case. Most search tools are not case sensitive or only respond to initial capitals, as in proper names. It is always safe to key all lower case (no capitals), because lower case will always retrieve upper case.

Catalog – An index or list of the items in a library collection. Rhodes College has an electronic ONLINE CATALOG

Check Out Desk – The "front desk" of the library where circulating materials are checked out and returned. Ask for Interlibrary Loan items and items placed on reserve by faculty at this desk.

Citation – A reference to any source (print, image, media, Internet) used in a research project. A citation Provides sufficient information to locate the original item.

Current Periodicals: Recent, unbound issues of periodicals located on the 2nd Floor Barret Library and arranged in alphabetical order by title.

Database – An organized collection of information, searchable by means of computer. In the library, database is occasionally used to describe electronic indexes or the contents of the Library’s Online Catalog.

Descriptor – A subject heading assigned to a document by an indexer of a database, to describe its subject matter.

Domain – The suffix (ie: .gov, .org, .edu, .com, etc.) of a web site address. This can give some indication of the origin of the information contained on the site.

Edition - All copies of a book or work issued by the same publisher on the same date. Another later issue of a book would be a revised or second and there may be multiple editions.

Field – The category or categories that are examined when a search engine searches a library database: author, title, subject, keyword, etc.

Full text – A journal or other article available in its entirety from a database or online source. A full text database is a database that has full text articles available for download. Other databases may have only citations or abstracts available.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. A file containing answers to commonly asked questions that new users to a program have asked.

Fiche: See Microfiche

Foreword: Introductory remarks preceding the text of a book that are written by a person other than the author. Compare to preface.

Government documents – Documents that are published by a government agency.

Gazetteer: Dictionary or index of geographical names with locations.

Glossary: Short list of words related to a specific topic, with brief definitions, arranged alphabetically and often placed at the end of a book.

Hold: A borrower may request that a circulating item be held upon its return. The borrower will be notified when the item becomes available.

Holdings: All the items in various formats owned by a library.

Homepage: Usually the first or main page of a particular web site.

Hyperlink (link): Clickable Internet links, that enable a user to move around a website or between websites.

Index: A list of citations to periodical articles and/or books arranged by subject, author, or title. They may be in print or electronic format (or both). An index is also a list of subjects covered in a book, usually found at the back of the book.

Information Desk – The "gateway" to the Library collection. The Reference librarians who staff this desk in the main lobby can help with questions about research, locating materials and general use of the library.

Information Literacy: The skills necessary to locate, access, and use information in today’s society.

Interlibrary Loan: (ILL) A service which fills the user′s request for materials from other lending libraries

Internet Browser: See Browser

Journal – A scholarly or academic periodical, often published by an organization or society, containing articles written by and for researchers in a field. Journals are scholarly in nature providing news, proceedings, transactions, and articles about the work carried out in a particular field of study. Articles are often reviewed by a committee of peers.

Keyword – In a search of a database, the word or words that describe the main topic of a search. A keyword search is less precise than a subject search

LCSH: Library of Congress Subject Headings. The specific subject headings into which the Library of Congress Classification System breaks down.

Legend: Found on a map, in an atlas, and in some databases (e.g., ProQuest). It is an explanation of the symbols used.

Library Catalog: Rhodes library catalog is called the Online Catalog

Library of Congress Classification System – A system developed to organize books and other media by subject.

Library of Congress Subject Headings - The subject classification system used by the Rhodes Library. LCSH is the classification system used by most academic and research libraries in the United States. It keeps items together by subject (see Call Number) by dividing knowledge into subject areas and assigning letters and numbers for library materials.

Liner note: explanations, historical descriptions, and interpretive essays found with sound recordings.

Literary Criticism: The interpretation (What does the text mean?) and/or evaluation (Is the work good or bad?) of literature.

Location: Where the item is housed

Magazine – A periodical intended for laymen and non-professionals. These rarely contain footnotes or bibliography, and content may be influenced by advertisers. This may or may not be an appropriate source, depending on circumstances. Articles are not peer reviewed.

Microfiche/Microfilm – Micro-images of printed material which needs a reader to view.

Monograph – A book that is complete in one item.

Peer reviewed – Usually said of journals. Peer reviewed journals publish articles that have been approved by a panel of experts in a field of study. Some research projects require that you use only peer reviewed sources.

Periodicals – Magazines, newspapers, journals, newsletters, etc. Publications released on a schedule at least twice a year.

Plagiarism – Failure to properly attribute/cite information, unless that information can be considered "common knowledge."

Record – The description of a single item in a library catalog.

Reference Collection - Reference items do not leave the library, and are meant to help provide basic information.

Search engine – A software program (Yahoo, Google, etc.) that endeavors to facilitate navigation of the web by searching web pages and other Internet resources either by keyword or by category, and presenting the results.

Secondary source – A source that endeavors to interpret or analyze, or otherwise relies on, primary sources. Criticism, textbooks, some magazine articles, and commentaries are examples of secondary sources. See also primary and tertiary sources.

Stacks – The physical shelving areas in a library.

Subject headings – This is a controlled vocabulary that is used to describe subjects. The subject headings are listed in the record of the item in the catalog. 

Tertiary sources – A source that uses or collects secondary sources and primary sources. Most web sites are tertiary sources, except for .gov. See also "primary" and "secondary sources".

Trade journals – Industry or trade-based journals that fall somewhere between magazines and academic journals in complexity of subject. 

Web, The; the World Wide Web – The Internet. An information system of servers and clients through which users can access data on other computers on a global scale.