| Academic library | A collection of materials developed and managed to support the student and faculty research interests of a college, university or other institution of higher education. |
| APA Style | The formatting and publication style developed by the American Psychological Association and used in psychology, education, health science and other disciplines. |
| Author | The creator of an original idea or material. |
| Call number | The designation of the location of library materials, assigned based on the subject, author’s name and intended use. |
| Card catalog | Printed information on library materials kept in file drawers in alphabetical order by author, title and subject headings |
| Catalog | An index for a library’s collection, it may be printed in books, cards or in a database. |
| Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) | The formatting and publication style developed by the University of Chicago and Chicago Tribune for their publications. It has two options, the Notes & Bibliography (NB) style, used mostly in the humanities disciplines, and the Author-Date (AD), used mostly in the social sciences. |
| Circulation | The department that maintains the physical arrangement to the library collection, facilitates access and checks materials in/out to patrons. |
| Citation | Information about a source of information with the original creator, and the availability of the material. Citations are in a style format designated by the publisher and/or profession affiliated with the topic. APA, MLA and Chicago Manual of Style are the most commonly used. |
| Cornell method | A style of note-taking with two columns, the left for terms and the right has the explanation or description. There is a summary section at the bottom of each page. It was developed at Cornell University. |
| Database | Computer software system to organize materials into descriptive fields, which can be easily sorted and accessed. |
| Document | verb- to provide detail information on the location and source of information.
noun- any government publication |
| Editor | A member of a publisher’s staff who reviews and selects submitted materials to include in a publication, coordinate further publishing tasks, such as peer review, editing and formatting the material for publication. |
| Evidence | Facts and results of research to document a trend, condition, or hypothesis evaluated for research purposes. |
| Experiment | A type of research assessing the impact of a change in environment or treatment. |
| Full-Text | The complete version of a publication available online. |
| Idea map | A style of note-taking and organizing information using diagrams, connecting the ideas by relationships to each other. |
| Index | A tool that provides location information of materials. The location may be specific pages in a book, a call number in a collection or other designation. |
| Integrated Library System | A library resource used to provide location, description, circulation status and other information about titles in a library collection. |
| Inter-Library Loan | A system to loan materials between libraries to address patron needs. |
| Internet | Electronic access to information and entertainment using wireless online access. |
| Journal | Periodical with articles published for members of professions and scholarly research. |
| Library catalog | A resource with descriptive and location information about a library’s collections. |
| Library: | A collection of materials acquired to address patron needs and interests. |
| Magazine | A periodical published to address interests, entertainment and information needs of the general public. |
| MLA Style | The citation and formatting style developed by the Modern Language Association that has been adopted by many of the humanities disciplines. |
| OPAC | Acronym for Online Public Access Catalog, this type of library catalog is available to their patrons via the Internet and facilitates keyword searching. |
| Outline | A style of organizing information and ideas by grouping concepts in a hierarchy and numbering them accordingly. |
| Peer Review | A process to assess materials submitted for publication in professional literature. Materials received by an editor or publisher are distributed to professionals in the appropriate discipline (without identifying information) for evaluation and discernment of the content, which is provided to the publisher and the author. |
| Periodical | A publication published on a recurring basis at regular intervals, such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. |
| Preliminary Research | The practice of locating background information on a topic to prepare to understand more advanced research on the topic. |
| Public library | A library with materials and programs selected for residents of a particular location, supported through taxes. |
| Publication | Media with information, entertainment and/or advertisements sold for public or professional sharing of ideas. |
| Publisher | Company that developed materials for publications, and its administrators. |
| Reference | Verb: to cite a source of information
Noun: a type of publication to assist in understanding a concept; examples are dictionary, atlas, encyclopedia, index, etc. Adjective: a type of assistance to locate and/or use materials in a library |
| Research | The practice of probing or exploring a topic for independent learning and sharing new knowledge with peers. |
| Resource | A tool used to locate information on a given topic. Each resource may be limited by subject or format of sources included. |
| Search engine | An electronic system to locate information, entertainment and advertisements available online via the Internet. |
| Source | A specific item used to explain information. Sources include experts and publications of any type. Sources should be evaluated to determine their credibility. |
| Spider graph | A style of taking notes with diagrams to note the relationship of concepts and supporting information. Also known as Idea Map. |
| URL | The online address for a website, it is an acronym for University Remote Locater. |
| Website | An online source of information, entertainment or advertisement developed to share their products, services, ideas via the Internet. |
License
Bridging the Gap: A Guide to College-Level Research Copyright © 2021 by Catherine J Gray is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.