All professions have a way of describing what they do in terms that may not be commonly understood by those who don't work with them daily. The glossary below attempts to demystify terms used to describe the collections, catalogs, and procedures at the Memorial Library.
- ABSTRACT
- A short statement of the essential content of a book, article, speech, report, dissertation, or other work of nonfiction, which gives the main points in the same order as the original work, but has no independent literary value. In scholarly journal articles, the abstract usually appears at the beginning, following the title and before the first sentence of the text. In an entry in a bibliographic database, the abstract accompanies the citation. Compare with summary. See also: author abstract and abstracting service.
- ALMANAC
- A usually annual reference book containing lists, charts and tables of useful factual and statistical information either on a wide variety of topics or a single subject.
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- A list of books or articles on a specific subject. Sometimes this is found at the end of a book or an article. Sometimes a long bibliography is published separately as a book. In The New York Public Library Research Libraries Dictionary Catalog, bibliographies almost always appear at the beginning of the subject headings.
- CALL NUMBER
- A code made of letters and numbers assigned to each item in the Library to indicate its location on the library shelves. The call number is required, along (usually) with author and/or title, for the retrieval of library materials. In ALEPH, the call number appears at the beginning of the information about the book, periodical, or other material.
- CATALOG
- A list that includes bibliographic information about books, periodicals, maps, recordings, music scores, visual materials, multimedia and other materials owned by the Library.
- CHARGED = CHECKED OUT
- A term indicating that a particular item is on loan to a patron.
- CITATION
- Information that identifies a book, an article, or other cited item. For a book, a citation should include the author, the title, the place of publication, the publisher, and the year of publication. For an article, a citation should include the author, the title of the article, the title of the periodical, volume and issue numbers, date of publication and the page numbers of the article.
- CONTROLLED VOCABULARY
- Words used as subject headings by a catalog or an index. Often these are listed in a thesaurus, which you can use to see terms for your topic before you start to use that catalog or index. The controlled vocabulary used in the Memorial Library catalog is the Library of Congress Subject Headings list.
- DESCRIPTOR
- Another word for subject heading used in many electronic journal databases.
- GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
- Materials published by local, state, federal, and international government organizations.
- HOLDINGS
- Items owned by the library (books, periodicals, volumes, etc.). "Periodical holdings" or "serial holdings" refer to individual issues of a periodical or serial owned by the library.
- INTERLIBRARY LOAN
- A service which makes it possible to borrow from another library material which The Memorial Library does not own.
- JOURNAL
- A publication containing scholarly articles written by experts on current research in a given field. Articles are usually accompanied by an abstract and bibliography.
- LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS
- The Library of Congress is the authority for subject headings used in the Memorial Library catalog. There are copies of the lists of LC Subject Headings, providing the right terms to use in searching the library catalogs, in the Reference Area. If you are in doubt about an appropriate heading to use, ask a librarian at the Reference Desk.
- MAGAZINE
- A periodical published primarily for the general public rather than for scholars.
- MICROFORMS
- Various technologies used to film or copy a printed work or manuscript in a much smaller size. Examples of microforms are microfilm, microfiche, and microcard. Generally this is done because the printed copy is in danger of falling apart, or the printed copy is out of print and very rare.
- PERIODICALS
- Items with the same name that are published on a regular schedule. (Periodicals are also serials, but not all serials are periodicals.) Magazines, journals, newspapers are all periodicals, as are yearbooks, annual reviews, etc.
- SERIALS
- Any library item that appears as part of a series (including series that are produced without a regular schedule).
- STACKS
- The area where the library's books and other materials are stored. Memorial Library has "open stacks" where you may browse and retrieve material yourself.
- SUBJECT HEADINGS
- Words used in library catalogs and in indexes to describe the contents of a book, periodical, article, or other work. Because there are many possible words to use for the same subject, catalogs and indexes use a controlled vocabulary (such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings).
- THESAURUS
- A list of terms which serves as a standardized or controlled vocabulary for identifying, locating, and retrieving information. The index ERIC has a thesaurus which is located in the reference area.