Glossary
Resources
Evaluation

Abstract:   brief summary; also used to refer to a type of periodical index that includes abstracts of articles 

Bibliography:  list of references or works cited, usually given at the end of a scholarly article or other research material 

Boolean Operators:   the words AND, OR, and NOT, which are used to combine search terms to either narrow or broaden a search set; from the 19th century mathematician George Boole.

Browser:   software used to access Internet resources; Netscape is an example of a Web browser 

Call Number:  an alphanumeric number assigned to library materials; call #s group materials on the shelf by subject; our call #s are assigned from the Library of Congress Classification Scheme 

Citation:   information necessary to find a specific article, book, etc; usually includes author, title, journal title with volume, issue & page # for articles or publisher, place of publication & year for books 

Database:  an electronic collection of information, usually in the form of individual records broken down into specific fields; Historical Abstracts is a database of materials about world history; ODU Library's online catalog is a database of all the materials owned by the library 

Field:  the smallest part of a record in a database; examples of fields are author, title, year 

Full-Text:  the full content of an article; the article itself 

Government Documents: Official documents produced by federal, state or local governmental agencies; often used as primary sources

Holdings:  Materials owned by a library, including books, journals, videos, etc 

Home Page:  the initial page of a World-Wide-Web site; ODU Library's home page is at http://www.lib.odu.edu  which leads to hundreds of pages on the library's Web server 

Hot Link:  see Link 

Imprint:  the publisher, place of publication, and copyright date of a book 

Index:  print or electronic list of citations, usually arranged by subject and/or author, used to identify relevant research materials 

Interlibrary Loan:  a service that allows you to borrow materials from another library 

Internet:  a widespread, worldwide network of educational, commercial, organizational and other networks 

Keyword:  any word in a database (as opposed to subject headings that are selected from a controlled vocabulary, or thesaurus, and assigned to each record); keyword searching involves using your own words 

Link:  hypertext connection on the Internet, where you click on a highlighted word or words and move to another place either in the current page or anywhere on the Internet 

Microfilm/microfiche: photographic reproduction of original documents in reduced size; the library's microfilm/fiche collection is on the 2nd floor

Netscape:  a company that produces a popular Web browser. 

Online (library) Catalog:  an electronic listing of all materials owned by a library, searchable by author, title, keyword, subject, or call number 

Peer Review:  the process in which research articles are reviewed and critiqued by experts in that field before publication. 

Periodical Database or Index:  see index 

Periodical:  material that is published or issued on a continual basis throughout the year, including journals, magazines, newspapers 

Primary Source:  original documentary evidence from a given historical period. Common primary sources are letters, diaries, government documents, etc.

Record:  the element of a database that gives all information (in the form of fields) about a specific item in the database 

Refereed Journal:  journal that uses the peer review process for publication of articles 

References:  list of citations to materials cited in the body of the text and/or consulted during research 

Reload:  the button on your browser that reloads the current page to be sure it is the most up-to-date revision of that page 

Search Engine: Web site that allows you to search for other Websites by keywords

Secondary Source:  books, articles or other analysis produced after an event takes place

Subject Heading:  standardized terms, taken from a controlled vocabulary (thesaurus) and assigned to individual materials 

Thesaurus:   controlled vocabulary; list of standardized subject terms associated with a particular database or index 

Truncation:  a search technique that allows a symbol to substitute for any number of characters at the end of a word root (e.g., comput* = computer, computers, computerization, etc)