Terms We Use - A to C

Abstract
A brief summary of the contents of a journal article or book.

Academic Journal
A periodical issued by an institution, corporation, or a professional or scholarly society containing current news and/or reports of research activities and work in a particular field.

Acronym
Word formed from the first (or first few) letters of each of the successive parts of a compound term, used as an abbreviation (frequently for an organisation) e.g. BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation.

Adobe Acrobat Reader
Part of a suite of programs developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. for creating and distributing electronic documents. The reader component of the Acrobat suite is distributed free for viewing and printing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files on all major computer platforms.

Almanac(k)
A publication, normally produced annually, containing facts and statistics on a wide variety of subjects e.g. Whitaker's Almanack.

Anthology
A collection of works (poems, stories, articles) by various authors and collected in a single volume.

Appendix
A part of a written work, not essential to the completeness of the text, containing complementary information such as statistical tables or explanatory material.

Author Search
Used when searching a catalogue or database, for example. This type of search would retrieve everything in that catalogue/database written by that author.

Barcode
A small label of lines that can be read by a computer. The barcodes on the inside covers of the books in Dundee City Libraries are used to issue books.

Bi-annual
A publication such as a journal which is issued twice a year. (Not to be confused with biennial, which is published every two years)

Bibliographic record
An individual record in a database that describes and identifies a specific item (such as a book or journal) by fields (e.g., title, author, publication date, etc).

Bibliography
A list of books, articles, web sites etc on a subject. Often found at the end of books and articles, showing the research done by the author.

Blog
Short for weblog, a blog is a website that can be simply created and maintained using special software, and which allows visitors to add comments to, but not to change, the original posted material. Typically authored by an individual, a blog may take the form of an online diary or journal, for example.

Boolean operators
Terms such as "and," "or," and "not" used to express the relationship of one term to another when searching databases.

Borrower Number
This is the number found above the barcode on your membership card. This, along with your PIN (Personal Identification Number), allows you to renew and reserve items and check your borrower record.

Borrower Record
This is a record on the library computer system where details of your loans, fines, reservations and inter-library loans are stored. They can be accessed via the main library catalogue by using your borrower number and PIN (Personal Identification Number).

Bound Journals
Complete or partial run of journals bound together into a single physical piece resembling a book.

Browser
Software program used to view and interact with various types of Internet resources available on the World Wide Web. Netscape, Firefox and Internet Explorer are three common examples.

Catalogue
The catalogue is a compilation of all items of stock held within Dundee City Libraries. It includes books and audio-visual materials. It is an online catalogue and can be accessed from a number of points within Dundee libraries and via the Internet from anywhere in the world.

Classification Number (Class Number)
The number, usually found on the spine of a book, that corresponds with the subject of the book. Also known as Shelf Mark. The Dewey Decimal system is used which consists of three numbers and then possibly a decimal point and any amount of numbers e.g. cookery's class number is 641.

Cookies
A cookie is a small piece of information that is placed on your computer by a website. Typically, it is used to store information so that a website can identify you between visits. This means that the next time you visit that site, the website can read the cookie and automatically 'remember' all the details you typed in previously.

Copyright
The rights of an author or publisher to keep control over their work. This means restrictions on the amount of photocopying that can be done from a book or journal.