Glossary of Library Terms
- Abstract
- A short summary of an article helpful in understanding the main idea.
- Bibliography
- A list of references or works cited at the end of a paper, article, or book.
- Biography
- A book or an article about a person's life.
- Call number
- A combination of letters and numbers assigned
to each book in the library. Used to find the book in the library
and also, describes the subject of the book. Our books are arranged with
Call Nos. A-M on the 3rd Floor and Call Nos. N-Z on the 4th Floor.
- Citation (or Reference)
- Refers to a book or an article and clearly identifies how to find it.
- Example of a Citation from a Book
- Chappell, Warren. A Short History of the Printed Word. Boston: Nonpareil Books, 1970.
- Example of a Citation from an Article
- Dow, Ronald F. "Editorial Gatekeepers Confronted by the Electronic Journal."
College & Research Libraries 61 (2000): 146-154.
- Example of a Citation from a GALILEO Database
- Malakoff, David. "Bush Bashed for Use of Science." Science
Nov 8 Aug 2003: 1. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCOhost. Georgia Perimeter College Lib. Clarkston, GA. 21 Aug 2003 <http://www.ebscohost.com>.
- Database
- An organized collection of information in electronic form. Both GIL and GALILEO are databases.
- Fulltext
- Complete text of a book or an article is available online.
- GALILEO (Georgia Library Learning Online)
- A collection of databases covering many subjects.
Databases may contain fulltext articles, citations, or a combination of the two.
- GIL (GALILEO Interconnected Libraries)
- The online library catalog.
- HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
- Computer text editing language used in the creation of
Web pages. One of the formats for printing articles from
fulltext databases. See PDF.
- Information literacy
- Knowing how to find, evaluate, and use information.
- Journal
- A scholarly periodical. Examples are Classical Quarterly, Journal
of Advertising, and Southern Humanities Review. Articles are written by experts in a particular
discipline, peer reviewed, contain footnotes and a reference list,
and may include tables, charts, and graphs. For contrast see Magazine.
- Keyword
- Words used to describe your topic. Use keywords
to search GIL, GALILEO databases, and the Internet.
- Magazine
- A popular periodical. Examples are Ebony, Cosmopolitan, People,
Bicycling, etc. Popular magazines contain advertisements, are printed on glossy paper, and
often have no authors or references for their articles.
For contrast see, Journal.
- Microfilm
- Photographic film that contains pictures of magazine and
newspaper articles. Requires the use of special readers. Microfilm
and readers are located on the 3rd floor of the library.
Get help with this if you need it.
- MLA (Modern Language Association) style
- A set of instructions for writing references, endnotes, footnotes,
and citations for a research paper. APA style (Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association) also commonly used.
- Non-fulltext database
- Provides citations or references to articles
- PDF (Portable Document Format)
- A photo of a page as it appeared in a magazine article. One of
the formats for printing articles from fulltext databases. Also see HTML.
- Periodical (or Serial)
- Anything published on a
regular basis (weekly, monthly, etc.) Periodicals include: newspapers, scholarly journals,
popular magazines, and more.
- Peer reviewed
- Articles submitted to scholarly, academic
journals undergo a peer review process. Experts review an article
for authenticity and accuracy.
- Periodical (or Serial)
- Anything published on a
regular basis (weekly, monthly, etc.) Periodicals include: newspapers, scholarly journals,
popular magazines, and more.
- Plagiarism is
- Using words or ideas in a paper that are not your own and not giving credit to
their authors. Forms of Plagiarism include, but are not limited to:
- Copying and pasting from the Internet and not giving credit
- Using exact words or ideas from a book or an article and not giving credit
- Buying a paper from the Internet to hand in to a teacher
- Primary source
- Material, such as original scientific
research or diaries, letters, photographs, interviews, oral
histories, and original works, by an author.
- Secondary source
- Material, such as literary criticism
or review articles, about original works.
