A Brief Library & Internet Glossary

A brief overview of the content of an article which provides details about the article. An abstract might be written by the author of the article, as is the case with most professional journals, or might be contributed by professional indexers, as is the case with many articles included in research databases. almanac Usually published annually, almanacs provide a miscellany of facts. Almost encyclopedic in coverage, they are particularly good sources for finding current statistics on nearly any topic. A couple of well‐known almanacs are the Time Almanac (formerly the Information Please Almanac) and Whitaker’s Almanack. Both of these sources are available in the UNF Library’s Reference Collection. annotated bibliography Simply put, an annotated bibliography is an alphabetically organized reference list of sources that have been reviewed for a particular topic that also includes brief evaluative descriptions of each of the sources. Note, the operative word in this discussion is “evaluative.” anonymous FTP A means for receiving files from a remote computer without having to have an account with the remote system. Many commercial enterprises maintain anonymous ftp sites for the convenience of their customers so that customers can download updated program files directly to their machines without having to request and receive diskettes through the mail. APA American Psychological Association article Much shorter than a book, an article can be as short as a paragraph or two or as long as several dozen pages. Articles can address any topic that the author decides to explore and can reflect opinion, news, research, reviews, instruction, nearly any focus. Articles appear in newspapers, magazines, trade publication, journals, and even in books. Because of their relative brevity, articles typically are used to provide up‐to‐date information on a wide variety of topics. atlas Although people usually think of atlases as being collections of maps and as being devoted solely to geography, atlases can also focus on specific subjects, such as history or art or literature. Unless a library has a separate atlas collection, atlases are typically kept in a library’s Reference Collection. UNF Library keeps atlases in Reference if they will fit on the shelves without making special adjustments. Those that are very large are typically housed in a separate Map/Atlas Collection located on the second floor of the library behind the Government Documents Collection. Examples of specialized atlases include the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States and the Rand McNally Bible Atlas, both housed in the library’s Reference Collection. author The person who actually wrote an article or book. This may at times even be a corporation, an association, or a government body. For example, the United States Department of Labor is often credited as author of many government documents. bibliographic citation A standard reference to an information source that provides basic information necessary for locating the information again. This typically includes author’s name, title of the source, periodical title (if the source is an article in a periodical), publication date, publisher, etc. The information varies according to the type of source. The various style guides set standards for each type of source to be referenced. bibliographic style A formal set of guidelines for preparing a bibliography. Some of the most commonly used styles at a university include APA, MLA, Turabian, and Chicago. bibliography An alphabetically arranged listing of sources of information on a subject. A typical bibliography is arranged by author’s last name or by title if an author is not given for a source. A bibliography may include periodical articles, books, videotapes, government documents, almost any type of information source that provides subject information. bibliography (book format) Bibliographies identify books, articles, and other resources available to researchers. Usually bibliographies focus on a particular subject area, like literature or sociology or psychology, and can be used to find classic studies in a field. Examples of bibliographies kept in UNF Library’s Reference Collection are the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature and Social Science Reference Sources: a Practical Guide. Bibliographies might also be housed in other library collections, depending on their focus. A search of the library’s catalog will identify where in the library a particular bibliography is shelved. biography Biographical works are very common components of any Reference Collection. Although full length biographies may be written on major figures in any field, not every important person will be profiled in his or her own full‐length biography and the full‐length biographies are typically not kept in a reference collection. The most comprehensive sources for biographical information are collections of biographies like Current Biography and Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. These specialized sources provide concise biographical sketches for important figures and frequently provide references to additional biographical materials. An excellent index to hundreds of biographical sources can be found in the library’s print Reference Collection and in its online collections. The Biography and Genealogy Master Index provides historical coverage of hundreds of standard biographical works, thus making it easy for a researcher to quickly identify which biographical source to use. The library also maintains, online, an excellent full‐text database called the Biography Resource Center. If this were a print publication, it would likely be shelved in the library’s Reference Collection. book Books are typically fairly lengthy written works that explore various topics in much greater depth than in an article. Books that are based on research typically will reference other books and a multitude of articles covering various aspects of the topic. book review A usually brief article that provides an evaluation and appreciation of a book. A review might assess the importance of a book’s contributions to a particular field of study or might make recommendations to potential readers of the book. Reviews of fiction will usually comment on originality, style, and readability. While an important tool for helping a researcher assess the value of a book to his or her research topic, a book review, by itself, is usually not sufficient for use as a source in a research project. Boolean logic Boolean logic is based on the work of British mathematician George Boole, whose work in algebra established the logical principles of set theory. In database searching, Boolean logic is used to connect search terms in a logical manner in order to get better results. The Boolean connectors are AND, OR, and NOT. AND is used to narrow a search by requiring that all terms entered are matched in the search results. OR is used to broaden a search by requiring that any of the terms entered match in the search results. OR is useful for finding synonyms in a single search. NOT is used to narrow results by eliminating search terms from the result. AND, OR, and NOT can be used in combination to more specifically describe a search. Chicago This refers to the Chicago Manual of Style. chronology A chronology documents events over a period of time, frequently in time‐line fashion. If, for example, you are interested in researching scientific progress during the 19th century, a chronology of science will give you a year‐by‐year, and possibly day‐by‐day, overview of the major scientific events for the 19th and other centuries. Some chronologies, such as the People’s Chronology: a Year‐by‐Year Record of Human Events from Prehistory to the Present, cover important events regardless of area. Others may focus on a specific subject, like the Chronological Outline of American Literature. compiler The person who collected information to be included in a published work. For example, a collection of quotes from different authors would be considered a compilation. The selector and organizer would be considered the compiler. corporate author When a book or article is prepared by an organization, by a company, or by a government body, the group that prepared the publication is referred to as a corporate author. dictionary Most people think of Webster when they hear the word dictionary. But dictionaries of the English language or of foreign languages are not the only types of dictionaries available in a Reference Collection. For nearly any subject area, a specialized dictionary of terms is available. Some typical examples in UNF Library include the Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy and the Computer Glossary: the Complete Illustrated Dictionary. Rather than just give definitions, many specialized dictionaries are actually mini‐encyclopedias, providing concise reference articles on major and minor concepts within a field. digest A digest is an organized collection of summaries of longer documents in an area. For example, court decisions are frequently made more accessible through the use of digests. A court digest will summarize the main points of the court decisions included and will provide access by key word or subject. One example of a case digest is the Supreme Court Digest, a compilation by subject of all decisions heard by the United States Supreme Court. Digests aren’t limited just to court decisions. One of the most notable and frequently used digests kept in a library is the Book Review Digest, which provides year‐by‐year summaries of book reviews published in a variety of sources. The Book Review Digest is housed in UNF’s Index/Abstract Collection located on the 3rd floor of the library. Many libraries will include their indexes and abstracts directly in the Reference Collection.