| Word | Description |
| Abstract | An abstract is a short summary describing the main idea or content of a work such as a book, article or dissertation. |
| Adobe Acrobat Reader | A program for viewing PDF files used in most electronic journals. The reader program is freely available on the Web. |
| Almanac | Books containing miscellaneous facts and statistical figures on many subjects. |
| 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. |
| Annual | 1. Occurring once a year 2. A book, report, etc., published annually. |
| Anthology | A collection of stories, plays or poems by various authors. |
| Article | Sometimes referred to as a paper, an article is a brief composition on a subject, usually appearing in a magazine or journal. |
| Audio Visual | Non-book materials such as various formats of audio and video recordings (e.g CD, DVD, VHS) which require equipment to be usable. See also AV collection |
| Author | A person, group, or corporate body responsible for all or some of the content of published material. |
| Author Keyword Search | A search for an article or book by a particular author. "Author" may include persons responsible for the work, such as writers, composers, artists, actors, directors, etc., and organizations may also be authors (corporate author). Enter the surname followed by the first name or initials e.g. Dickens Charles or Dickens C. |
| AV collection | Collection of audio visual materials such as CD ROMs, DVDs, video and audio recordings. |
| Bi-Annual | A publication (e.g. a magazine) which is issued twice a year. Because of confusion with the term biennial (a publication issued every two years), the terms "half-yearly," "twice yearly" or "semi-annual" are more commonly used. |
| Bibliographic database | A database containing information relating to print and electronic publications such as books, journals, reports and government documents. A library catalogue is an example of this. |
| Bibliography | A list of books, articles, electronic sources on a particular subject, or a list of books and or articles referred to in another book or article. |
| Biennial | Published every two years. |
| Blurb | A brief summary or description of a work printed on the book jacket, publisher's catalog or advertisement. |
| Book | Handy, portable printed information storage device commonly forming a large portion of a library collection, and not requiring mediating technology for use. (BOOK: Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge.). Source - http://www.lib.utah.edu/science/glossary.html. |
| Boolean operator | There are 3 primary Boolean operators, AND, OR and NOT these are used when searching the web or a database to combine search terms to broaden or narrow searches. |
| Borrow or circulate | Words used to describe the lending of library resources. |
| Browser | A software program which accesses, reads and displays information from the World Wide Web. Also called a web browser (eg. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari). |
| Call number | An alphanumeric code which identifies an item in the library collection by subject and indicates its location on the shelves. Call numbers are listed in the library catalogue and are usually found on the spine of books, bound serials and AV items and on the front cover of unbound serials. |
| Catalogue | The Library catalogue contains bibliographic records of all of the items (books, journals, DVDs, e-journals, e-books and so on) that the Library provides access to. The patron interface is often called an OPAC, online public access catalogue. |
| Cataloguing | The process of making entries for a library catalog. This includes recording of descriptive information about the work (author, title, physical characteristics, etc.) as well as assigning approved subject headings and call numbers to place the item in the desired order on the shelves. |
| CD-ROM | Compact Disk - Read-Only Memory; a high-capacity optical (laser) information storage device in the form of a plastic disk. It is common for text books to be published with accompanying CD-ROMs containing supplemental information and programs. |
| Citation | A standardised description of a source of information used in the preparation of a research paper . A citation is formatted according to a referencing scheme and provides details for finding the information source (e.g. citations for articles contain the author name, title of the article, title of the source , date, volume, and page numbers. See also Reference. |
| Controlled Vocabulary | Standardised terms or phrases that are used in a catalog, database, or other retrieval tool to describe the content of information sources. May also be called 'descriptors' or 'subject headings', and be listed in a 'thesaurus'. Terms will be drawn from a scheme such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). |
| Copyright | Legal rights that an author or artist has over the use of his/her work for a set period of time. |
| Database | A (Electronic) Database is a searchable electronic collection of resources. It might contain descriptions of information sources (a library catalogue), descriptions of journal, magazine and newspaper articles (an Index Database) or descriptions of articles accompanied by the text of the articles (a Full Text Database) |
| Domain | The last element of an internet address (URL) that indicates the ownership of a webpage, e.g. edu, org, gov. |
| E-book | An electronic version of a book that is accessed and read on the Web. Some may be freely available but most will require a subscription or purchase before they can be read. |
| E-journal | An electronic version of a journal that is accessed via a web browser. Some are freely available but most require a subscription. See Electronic Journal. |
| Electronic Database | An Electronic Database is a searchable electronic collection of resources. It might contain descriptions of journal, magazine and newspaper articles (an Index Database) or the text of the articles themselves (a Full Text Database). |
| Electronic Journal | An electronic version of a journal that is accessed via a web browser. Some are freely available but most require a subscription. See E-Journal. |
| Endnote | Endnote is a software tool which enables you to create a database of references from your readings which can then be organised, edited and converted into a bibliography or reference list using a specific citation style. |
| Folio | A library term used to identify books that measure 32.6cm or above. Books of this size may be housed in a particular location in the library and are identified with the letter 'F' above the call number |
| Full Text Database | A full text database is one which provides access to the entire text of the journal, report or newspaper articles indexed in the database. |
| Hidden Web | See Invisible Web. |
| Index Database | An Electronic Database which describes or indexes articles from jourrnals, magazines or newspapers. The content of the articles needs to be located in other information sources such as a Full Text Database or a library collection (via the Library Portal). |
| Invisible Web | The portion of the Web that is hidden from search engines, and which may require a subscription or password to access. The University Library's databases are an example of the invisible Web. Also called the Hidden Web. |
| ISBN | The International Standard Book Number, is a commercial identifier for books. The ISBN is 10 or 13 digits long and it uniquely identifies internationally published books and book-like products |
| ISSN | International Standard Serial Number. An international system used on periodicals, magazines, learned journals, etc. The ISSN is formed of eight digits, which refer to the country in which the magazine is published and the title of the publication. |
| Peer Review | A process used by some academic journals to assure the quality of the articles they publish. Involves the articles being approved by experts in the discipline area before they published. |
| Periodical | A publication that is issued at least twice a year. These include journals, magazines, and newspapers. Periodicals may also be called serials. |
| Plagiarism | To present the words or ideas of another as your own without proper acknowledgement of the source |
| Quarto | A library term used to identify books that measure 27 - 32.5cm. Books of this size may be housed in a particular location in the library and are identified with the letter 'Q' above the call number |
| Reciprocal Borrowing | The ability to borrow materials from libraries other than those belonging to the University of Notre Dame. Reciprocal borrowing either occurs under a national scheme University Libraries Australia or a locally negotiated agreement between the two libraries. |
| Reference | 1. A standardised description of a source of information. A reference is formatted according to a referencing scheme and provides details for finding the information source (e.g. references to articles contain the author name, title of the article, title of the source , date, volume, and page numbers. See also Citation. 2. Types of resources which provide definitions, background information and facts and figures. Obvious examples include dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, glossaries and referencing guides. |
| Relevancy ranking | A database or search engine's arrangement of your results so that those most likely to be relevant to your query are displayed first. Relevancy may be determined such things as the number of times a search term appears in the document, title, subject, or abstract. The degree and sophistication of ranking varies with each resource, but is generally more sophisticated in databases than search engines. |
| Scholarly Journal | A periodical which publishes articles by academics based on their research in their discipline area. See also Peer Review |
| Stop Terms | Commonly occurring words like 'the', 'and' and 'of' which are routinely ignored by databases when included in a search. |
| Subject Headings | Standardized terms or phrases that are used to describe the contents of a resource in a library catalogue or a database. The Headings are drawn from schemes such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). |
| Tag On | When you want to use the EFTPOS Kiosks or the Print-Copy-Scan Devices you simply tap or wave your Student ID Card on the tagging unit located on the device or Kiosk. The system will automatically load your account and ask you to enter your four digit PIN. When you have finished, repeat the Tag On process to Tag Off (Logout). |
| Thesaurus | An extensive collection of synonyms or words with related meaning |
| Title | The name of a book, journal, article, or other written work. |
| Truncation | A search technique common in databases that allows for simultaneous searching of variant spellings and word endings through the use of specific symbols in the search statement. The specific symbols may be different for different databases. |
| Wiki | A wiki is software that allows users to collaboratively create, edit, link, and organize the content of a website. They are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites eg. Wikipedia |
| Wildcard | A character (usually * or ?) that can be inserted into the middle of a word to stand in for one or more unknown characters during a search. This particularly useful when searching for English and American spellings of words. |