| A - E |
| abstract |
A brief summary of a book or article. Abstracts are provided along with
citation information in many periodical indexes, and may be written by either
the paper's author or an indexer. |
| Adobe Acrobat reader |
A program for viewing PDF files, used in many full-text electronic journals.
The reader program is free, and if you do not have it on your machine when
it is needed to access an article, instructions for downloading it will usually
appear on your screen. Download
Adobe Acrobat |
| almanac |
A volume containing a collection of miscellaneous facts and statistics
on many subjects. |
| article |
A contribution, by one or more authors, published in a periodical. |
| bibliographic citation/reference |
Information about a publication, used in catalogs and indexes as well as
in lists of "literature cited"; or "references" in scholarly publications.
Formats vary, but a book citation generally includes at least information
on the author, title, publisher, and date of publication; an article
citation includes author, title, date, and information on the periodical
in which it was published. See citing
sources. |
| bibliography |
A list of books or articles which are related in some way, for example,
about a particular subject (such as Guide to the Literature of the Zoological
Sciences) or written by a specific author (such as a Bibliographical Checklist
and Index to the Published Writings of Albert Einstein ). |
| boolean search |
Lets you combine two keywords or phrases. The symbols that connect are
called Boolean operators. Some operators used in the VWC catalog
are AND or, OR, NEAR and NOT or -. Go to boolean
searching for a quick tutorial on how to use these operators. |
| call number |
The letters and numbers on the spine of library books used to indicate
the location of books on the shelves. Call numbers in VWC Library are shelved
using the Library of Congress Classification System;
juvenile books are shelved using the Dewey Decimal classification. |
| circulation |
The lending of books (or other materials) to borrowers and the keeping
of records of loans. Library circulation
policies are available online. |
| citation |
A reference to a work, such as a book or article; usually contains the
title, author, and publication information. Citations are provided
in bibliographies, indexes, and the lists of references in scholarly
works. Citation formats vary according to field of study and/or requirements
of particular publications. Citing
sources provides information on how to correctly cite your sources of
information. |
| consortium |
VWC is part of the Virginia Tidewater
Consortium for Higher Education; students at consortium institutions
may obtain a library card from their own library for reciprocal borrowing
privileges. |
| copyright |
A form of legal protection for authors of original works that include the
literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, filmed and other intellectual
products. Publication is NOT essential for copyright protection,
nor is the well known encircled. The owner of the copyrighted work has the
exclusive right to do and give others permission use their work. To learn
more about copyright go to Copyright
guidelines. |
| F - I |
| folio |
An over-sized book; folio materials are shelved in a specific location. |
| holdings |
List of the number of copies and shelf location for library materials. |
| HTML |
Hyper Text Markup Language; the coding syntax used to write WWW documents. |
| index |
A list or systematic guide to the contents of a set of data, such as a
periodical index or an index in a book. See periodical index. |
| interlibrary loan |
A service for obtaining books or articles not held in the library; also
called ILL. See Interlibrary loan guidelines. |
| ISBN |
International Standard Book Number; a numerical code given to a book which
uniquely identifies it. |
| ISSN |
International Standard Serial Number;
a numerical code given to a serial (periodical) which uniquely identifies
it. |
| J - M |
| journal |
A periodical publication in which researchers report the results of their
work to their peer community. Magazines
vs. journals provides more information. |
| keyword |
A significant word in the title, abstract or text of a work; some periodical
indexes identify keywords in a separate data field, so that they can be searched
without searching the full text of the document. Some indexes use such keywords
in place of assigning standard subject headings to items. |
| keyword search |
Lets you match words in the articles themselves, not just in controlled
index terms. This search is useful if you do not know an exact author name,
title, or Library of Congress subject heading, or if you want to combine more
than one concept in your search. Boolean Operators AND, OR, and NOT may be
used to link terms in a keyword search. |
| LC |
Library of Congress, the unofficial national library of the U.S. |
| LC Classification |
Library of Congress Classification System; used to
determine where materials are shelved in the library; assigns specific letters
and numbers to a publication based on the subject matter and publication information. |
| library catalog |
List of resources in a library, including books, magazines and journals,
audio-visual materials and other materials; usually searchable by author,
title and subject headings. |
| MARC |
Machine-Readable Cataloging. Machine-readable records of cataloging done
by the Library of Congress and sold on subscription. |
| magazine |
A periodical, generally with a more "popular" style and presentation than
a research journal. Magazines vs. journals provides
more information. |
| microfilm/form |
An item which contains images which cannot be read without a machine which
magnifies. Images are usually on 35 mm. film or fiche, but may also be on
16 mm. film or opaque cards. |
| multimedia |
A document or program that integrates text, graphics, audio and video. |
| N - R |
| non-circulating |
Library materials which may not be checked out by patrons. Non-circulating
items include archival material, rare books, reference material, current periodicals
and other items which must remain accessible within the library at all times. |
| online database |
A database located on a remote computer and searched over the internet. |
| PDF |
Portable Document Format; a document-encoding process developed by Adobe
that maintains page layout, fonts and graphics and can include many other
features, e.g. hyperlinks. |
| peer reviewed/refereed sources |
Materials submitted to publishers by scholars are peer reviewed when they
are sent to a group of recognized experts in the same field for evaluation.
These experts will recommend for or against publication based on the importance
of the subject material, the originality and currency of the research, the
validity of the conclusions drawn from the supporting evidence, and other
factors. Peer review is used by scholarly publishers to ensure that the material
they publish is of the highest quality. Publications that practice peer review
are also known as "refereed" sources. |
| periodical |
A serial (journal, magazine) which is published at regular intervals, is
numbered, contains separate articles, and has no pre-determined end date.
Does not include newspapers or conference proceedings. |
| periodical index |
An index to a group of periodicals; some cover a broad range of general
periodicals such as Reader's Guide and others cover periodicals in
one specific subject area, such as Religion Index or Education Index;
may be available in print, online or both. Print
indexes contains
a list of those print indexes owned by Hofheimer Library. |
| plagiarism |
the act of stealing the thoughts or writings of others and presenting them
as his or her own [definition from The Chambers Dictionary, Ref PE1628 .C41745
1993]. See VWC's Honor Code. |
| popular information |
Information intended to inform and entertain a more general readership.
Popular sources attempt to attract readers by eye-catching covers and illustrations,
exciting headlines and high-interest topics, and straight forward, non-technical
language. |
| primary source |
Original material, such as a first-hand account of an event or a work of
literature or art, that has not been interpreted by anyone other than its
creator. Common types of primary sources are diaries, letters, autobiographies,
interviews, speeches, conference literature, stories, patents, poetry, drama,
sheet music, and visual art. See Primary vs. Secondary Sources. |
| reference books |
Books in the library which are used for research but cannot be checked
out; examples include subject encyclopedias, atlases, bibliographies,
dictionaries, manuals, and almanacs. See reference
books. |
| remote access |
Using a database or other electronic resource which is not physically present
on the computer; VWC library provides remote access to the book catalog
and databases so that users can access these tools from outside of
the library. |
| reserve materials |
A collection of material in very high demand due to use in the curriculum.
Instructors may request that library materials (or, in some cases, their own
materials) be placed on reserve for students to borrow on short loan periods
for the duration of a course. See Circulation
and Reserves. |
| S - V |
| scholarly information |
Information intended to communicate research findings and stimulate discussion
among academic professionals and students. Scholarly sources strive to be
authoritative, accurate, and detailed, and they document the sources of the
ideas they contain. |
| search engines |
A software program enabling a user to find resources on the Internet, for
example Google and Yahoo. Internet
research provides additional information and guidelines. |
| secondary source |
These sources analyze and interpret primary sources, drawing upon them
to explain events of the past or explore the meaning of works of art. Secondary
sources are often produced well after the events or primary sources they comment
upon, and their authors tend to be modern scholars or commentators rather
than eyewitnesses of what they write about. Typical secondary sources include
scholarly books, articles in journals, reviews, and textbooks. See Primary vs. Secondary Sources. |
| serials |
Publications issued in successive parts; usually (though not always) at
regular intervals, and intended to be continued indefinitely; examples include
newspapers, magazines , journals. periodicals, annuals, yearbooks, memoirs,
proceedings, transactions, and numbered monographic series. |
| series |
Separate publications on a specific subject having a collective title;
series usually have a uniform physical format and are usually issued by the
same publisher, and may or may not be numbered. |
| style manuals |
A publication which specifies details of writing style required by a particular
publishing house or professional organization, including such matters as punctuation,
capitalization, and rules for citing references. Citing
sources provides additional information and location of manuals at Hofheimer
Library. |
| subject |
A term, name, or phrase used as an access point in a catalog or index which
is arranged by topic. Generally, any particular index will use a standardized
set of subject headings, which improves search precision once the user determines
the "approved" headings being used for their topic. |
| truncation |
Cutting a search term at its root to retrieve words with different endings.
For example, architect# would lead to architect, architects, architecture
and architectural. The truncation symbol varies from system to system. |
| URL |
Uniform Resource Locator; an address that specifies the location of a file
on the Internet (e.g. http://www.vwc.edu). |
| union list |
A list of serials with basic information and a list of libraries which
have reported as holding any given serial title. VWC has the Hampton Roads
Union List of Serials in Reference. |
| W - Z |
| web page |
A single HTML document (file); a web "page" may be many screens long when
viewed, or many pages long if actually printed out. |
| web site |
A collection of online files called web pages accessible on the Internet
using a computer. |
