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Glossary

Please note: definitions marked with an asterisk/star/* have been taken in whole or in part from ODLIS: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science, by Joan M. Reitz at Western Connecticut State University. The dictionary may be found at http://lu.com/odlis/about.cfm.

 

AACR2* Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. A detailed, standardized set of rules established in 1966 (AACR)for cataloging different types of library materials in the United States,Canada, and Britain; revised in 1978 (AACR2) and in 1988 (AACR2e) toreflect changes in information formats. Jointly published by the American Library Association, the Library Association (UK) and the Canadian Library Association.
ABES   Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur
 
Academic library* A library affiliated with a university, college or other post-secondary educationalinstitution, serving the information and research needs of theinstitution’s students, faculty and staff.
 
ACQ Acquisitions module of LBS local library system
The system for order and circulation administration including a subscription registration system.
 
AdamNet AdamNet is the regional, joint catalogue of the university libraries,scientific, special and public libraries in Amsterdam.
 
ALA American Library Association.The leading professional association for public andacademic libraries and librarians in the United States.
 
ANSI* American National Standards Institute. ANSI is a private, non-profit organization (501(c)3) that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. The Institute'smission is to enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business andthe U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensusstandards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding theirintegrity. The United States is represented in ISO by ANSI. Standards for library and information science are developed by NISO, a nonprofit association accredited by ANSI.
 
Audio-visual Archive - NAA Amsterdam The Dutch Audio-visual Archive NAA is in charge ofan important archive of moving pictures and sound recordings.
 
Authority control* The procedures by which consistency of form is maintainedin the headings (names, subjects, and other headings) usedin a library catalog or file of bibliographic records, throughthe application of an authority file to new items as they are addedto the collection.
 
Authority file* A list of the authoritative forms of names, subjects,and other headings used in a library catalog or fileof bibliographic records.
 
AVM Audio-visual Media This database contains references to more than 40.000 titlesand contents of general and educational audio-visual programmes availablein The Netherlands.
 
Bibliographic database* A computerized file consisting of electronics records,each of which represents a document or item retrievable by author,title, subject heading, or keywords. Although some bibliographicdatabases are general in scope and coverage, many are indexes andabstracting services which provide access to the literature of aspecific field or discipline.
 
Bibliographic record* A representation of a work, containing all the data necessary toidentify and catalog it in a specific bibliographic format such as MARC.Bibliographic formats include the following descriptive elements: titleand statement of responsibility (author, editor, composer, etc.), edition,type of materials, publisher/distributor, publication date, place ofpublication, physical description, series, notes, standard number(ISBN, ISSN, etc.), and terms of availability (price).
 
BIBSYS is the union catalogue of all Norwegian research libraries.
 
BioOne BioOne is an aggregation of the full-texts of high-impact bioscience research journals. Most of BioOne’s titles are published by small societies and non-commercial publishers, and, until now, have been available only in printed form. BioOne provides integrated, cost-effective access to a thoroughly linked information resource of interrelated journals focused on the biological, ecological and environmental sciences." BioOne's content is distributed in North America by Amigos Library Servicesand internationally by OCLC.
 
BNTL The Bibliography of Dutch Language and Literature containsreferences to books and periodicals' articles, and offline electronicmaterial on Dutch, Flemish and Friesian linguistics and literature.
 
B.V. Private limited company
 
CBK The Central Database of Childrens' Books contains more than 100,000references to childrens' books, periodicals and audio-visual material inthe Dutch language.
 
CBS Central Library System
 
CDRS Collaborative Digital Reference Service.A Library of Congress/OCLC project designed toprovide professional reference service to researchersanytime (24/7), anywhere, through an international, digitalnetwork of libraries and relatedinstitutions.  Now a part of QuestionPoint.
 
CEN CEN is a database of letters in the collections of theuniversity libraries in Amsterdam (UvA), Leiden, Groningen and Utrecht, ofthe Royal Library in The Hague, of the Meermanno-Westreenianum Museum andof the Nederlands Letterkundig Museum en Documentatiecentrum in The Hague,of the Provincial Library Friesland in Leeuwarden and of the Stads- ofAthenaeumbibliotheek in Deventer.
 
CIP* Cataloging in Publication.
A prepublication cataloging program in whichparticipating publishers complete a standardized CIP data sheet and submitit with the front matter of a new book to their national library orcataloging agency for use in assigning a Library of Congress Card Numberand preparing a bibliographic record which is sent back to the publishedwithin ten days to be printed on the verso of the title page.OCLC offers a program that accelerates upgrading of CIP from theLibrary of Congress in the WorldCat database; professional catalogers fromthe OCLC TECHPRO service, stationed at Academic Book Center (Portland,OR), upgrade CIP records in WorldCat to full-MARC records as newlypublished materials arrive.
 
Collection development* Process of planning and building a useful and coherent collectionof library materials over a period of years, based on assessment ofthe information needs of thelibrary’s clientele and analysis of previous usage, and normallyconstrained by budget allocations for new materials. Collectiondevelopment includes formulation of selection criteria and planning forresource sharing as well as selection, de-selection and replacement ofdamaged and lost materials.
 
CONTENT DM Digitization tooldeveloped at the University of Washington and available through OCLC'sDigital & Preservation Resources. )
 
CORC Cooperative Online Resource Catalog. OCLCservice that is a state of the art, Web-based system thathelps libraries provide well-guided access to Web resourcesusing new, automated tools and library cooperation.
CURL Consortium of University Research Libraries. In Great Britain,roughly equivalent to the US's ARL, the Association for Research Libraries.
DDC Dewey Decimal Classification. The most widely used libraryclassification systemin the world, published by OCLC’s Forest Press division.
 
DNB Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, German National Library
 
Distributors Independent organizations outside the U.K. and The Netherlandsthat contract with OCLC PICA service centers to provide OCLC PICA services.See: List of Distributors Northern,Southern and Middle East & Africa.
 
Documentation Centre on Dutch Political Parties The Documentation Centre on Dutch Political Parties (in Dutch abbreviated as DNPP) wasfounded at the University of Groningen in 1973; since 1991 it has been affiliated withthe University Library.
DOI® Digital Object Identifier.
A system for identifying and exchanging intellectualproperty in the digital environment. It provides a framework for managingintellectual content, for linking customers with content suppliers, forfacilitating electronic commerce, and enabling automated copyrightmanagement for all types of media.
Dublin Core The Dublin Core defines fifteen metadata elements to describe resources of various kinds in across-disciplinary information environment. These elements are:title, subject, description, source, language, relation, coverage,creator, publisher, contributor, rights, date, type, format, andidentifier. A project of the OCLC Office for Research.
 
 
EBSCO's Academic Search Elite Academic Search offers acces to the tables of content andabstracts of a collection of approximte 2,900 periodicals.
 
The Dutch Education Database The database contains approximately 32,000bibliographic references on books and journal articles in the field ofeducational research, curriculum development and test development in theNetherlands.
ECO Electronic Collections Online
An OCLC electronic journals service that offers Web accessto a growing collection of more than 3,000 titles,letting libraries subscribe to individual journals and provide access tothem for their end users through a single Web interface.
EUCat Catalogue with the title and holding data of important European library collections.
 
FirstSearch OCLC FirstSearch is a comprehensive and completeonline reference service with a rich collection of databases andwith links to the World Wide Web, over 5.9 million online full textarticles, full-image articles from over 3,500 electronic journals,library holdings, and interlibrary loan. It supports research in awide range of subject areas with well-known bibliographic and full-textdatabases in addition to ready-referencetools such as directories, almanacs and encyclopedias.
 
Format* Physical characteristics of print or nonprint documents.
Format categories include books, serials, maps, archives,recordings, machine-readable data files, and others.
 
FRANCIS FRANCIS contains references and abstracts in the field of the humanities,social sciences and economics.
Fte Full time equivalent
 
GBV Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund
 
GGC Shared Automated Cataloguing System
The Shared Automated Cataloguing System enables the participating libraries to use one central title database in creating their own catalogue. Use of a central database means that a publication has to be catalogued only once and that it is subsequently available for general use. The central database contains more than 12 million references. Use of this system saves the libraries a great deal of work, since in most cases it is not necessary for them to make a catalogue entry.
 
GLIN GLIN contains titles of publications of governmental and otherpublic institutions, of universities and other scientific institutions andof theses, published in The Netherlands since 1982.
 
HEBIS The Library and Information system of the federal state Hesse (Germany)
 
Het Financieele Dagblad Via a library, users can browse online the Dutch daily newspaper'Het Financieele Dagblad'.
 
HINT HinT is a bibliographical database of publications about WesternEuropean history from ca. 1500 up to the present.
HofNet HofNet is the network of the catalogues of libraires in TheHague.
Holdings* The total stock of materials (print and nonprint)owned by a library or library system,listed in its catalog.
IBL Interlibrary Loan (see also NCC and ILL)
 
IBL account Electronic account to be opened by end users to pay for their direct requests in the NCC/IBL-system
ICODO The ICODO library catalogue contains the bibliographical dataof about 8,000 books and 4,000 articles. These books and articles coverthe psychosocial effects of war in its broadest terms, especiallyconcerning the Second World War and its aftermath in the former DutchEast Indies, but also refugees and military personnel of present times.
 
IFLA International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.IFLA is the leading international body representing the interestsof library and information services and their users.As an independent, international, non-governmental, not-for-profitorganization, IFLA aims to promote high standards of provision anddelivery of library and information services, encourage widespreadunderstanding of the value of good library and information services,and represent the interests of its members throughout the world.The Royal Library, the national library of the Netherlands, in The Hague,provides facilities for IFLA's headquarters.
 
IJsselNet A Dutch regional catalogue.
 
ILTIS The Integrierte Literatur-, Tonträger- und Musikalien-Informations-System ILTISof Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
 
ILL Interlibrary loan.
Process whereby a library requests to borrow an item from anotherlibrary, typically done when an item needed by a borrower is checked out,unavailable for some other reason, or not owned by the library.
 
iPort Portal software to search databases simultaneously
 
ISTC ISTC is a database produced by the British Library of titlesof 15th century books in typeset.
 
ITC Information Technology Centre
ISBN* International Standard Book Number.
International Standard Book Number, a unique ten-digit publisher’s code assigned to aspecific edition of a book prior to publication.
 
ISO International Organization for Standardization.
ISO's mission is to promote the development of standardization and relatedactivities in the world with a view to facilitating the internationalexchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in thespheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity.
 
ISSN* International Standard Serial Number.
International Standard Serial Number, a unique eight-digit number assigned by theInternational Serials Data System (ISDS) to identify a specific serial publication.
 
 
KB Royal Library in The Hague
 
LBS Local Library System
The Pica local library system consists of various modules for lending,online public access catalogue and acquisitions (OUS, OPC, ACQ)
 
LC* Library of Congress.
Established by act of Congress in 1800 as a research library forthe legislative branch of the U.S. federal government, the Library ofCongress eventually became the national library of the United States.Located in Washington D.C., LC also administers the U.S. copyright systemand serves as the nation's copyright depository.
 
LCSH* Library of Congress Subject Headings.
Anestablished list of preferred subject terms, selected by a subjectspecialist at the Library of Congress, from which an indexer or catalogermay select when assigning subject headings to a bibliographic recordrepresenting a work he/she is cataloging.
 
LDR Local Data Record.
These records contain information such as the call number assigned by an individual library to atitle, copy-specific information (such as "Gift of ...."), orwhich parts of a multipart item an institution owns. See theOCLC UnionList User Guide for more information.
 
LIDIA The LIDIA-online database contains more than 230,000 referencesto books that have been offered starting in 1978 to public librariesto build their collections.
 
LIIS Advisory Body for National Information Infrastructure
 
LM-Collections LM-Collections contains the catalogues of the collections ofthe Letterkundig Museum in The Hague, Netherlands.
 
MARC* Machine Readable Cataloging.An international standard digital format for describingbibliographic items, developed at the Library of Congressto facilitate the creation and dissemination of computerizedcataloging in LC format from one library to another and between countries.
 
MARC 21 The 21st (and current) edition of the Machine Readable CatalogingStandards, published by the Library of Congress
 
Member library An organisation that has agreed to contribute its current Romanalphabet cataloguing to shared database. For contrast, see 'user'.
 
Metadata Structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easierto retrieve, use or manage an information resource.
 
MetaText The MetaText Division of netLibrary (see below). creates, hosts and managesweb-based digital textbooks for leading textbook publishers. MetaTextdigital textbooks provide instructors and students with a full range ofinteractive teaching, collaborating and learning tools.
 
Monograph* In AACR2, a monographis defined as a nonserial item, either complete in one volume or intendedto be completed in a finite number of successive parts, issued at regularor irregular intervals, which can be either a single work or a collectionof works.
 
 
NBLC Dutch organisation for Public Libraries
 
NCC - Dutch Central Catalogue The Dutch Central Catalogue NCC contains bibliographicreferences and the locations of approximately 15 million books and almost500,000 periodicals in more than 400 libraries in The Netherlands. Thedatabase is updated directly and continuously.
 
NCRD The Netherlands Documentation Centre for Legal History andLegal Iconography NCRD offers information and documentation on legalhistory of The Netherlands.
 
NetFirst NetFirst is a catalogue of Internet resources, supplied by OCLC. The catalogue contains more than 150,000 records from 1995 onwards. NetFirst is available for educational, non-for-profit, governmental and public libraries who have unlimited access to the Dutch Central Catalogue based on the number of single users.
For these libraries, the Netfirst database is free of charge. Starting from July 2002, NetFirst is included in WorldCat. Hence, the NetFirst updates are processed in WorldCat and no longer in NetFirst.
NetLibrary The leading provider of eBooks for the institutional library market.netLibrary develops, hosts, maintains and preserves eBook collections foracademic, corporate, public, and school libraries. Thousands of librariesthroughout the United States and internationally are currently providingnetLibrary eBooks to their patrons. Since January 2002, a division ofOCLC. Also includes MetaText (q.v.)
 
Nonprofit The designation of acorporation that exists for charitable, research, educational, scientific,or religious purposes, rather than to expand equity for shareholders. Thepreferred OCLC term is 'not for profit' organization.
 
NOORDnet The regional catalogue of NOORDnet.
 
 
OBN Open Library Network
The Open Library Network connects national and local library systems in theNetherlands and integratesexisting automated library systems, library networks and procedures.
 
OCLC OCLC An international not for profit cooperative oflibraries and other institutions that share a common database (WorldCat)to identify and share resources and to share research into librariesand information science. Originally, OCLC stood for Ohio College LibraryCenter.Today, the full legal name is OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
 
Online Contents OLC Online Contents OLC contains references to all articles thatappear in almost 15,000 current periodicals in all fields of science. Thisdatabase contains beside scientific also general, non specialist andpopular periodicals.
 
OLC - Applied Sciences Online Contents Applied Sciences contains the tables of contents and references to articlesfrom approximately 2,500 periodicals from the complete Online Contents database.
 
OLC - Biomedical Sciences Online Contents Biomedical Sciences contains the tables of contents and references to articlesfrom approximately 4,000 periodicals from the complete Online Contents database.
 
OLC - Periodicals in Dutch The Online Contents - Periodicals in Dutch database contains the tables of contentsof more than 1,100 periodicals in the Dutch language from the completeOnline Contents database that consists of more than 12,500 periodicalsin all fields of science.
 
OLC - Economics & Management Online Contents Economics & Management contains the tables of contents andreferences to articles from approximately 1,000 periodicalsfrom the complete Online Contents database.
 
OLC - Exact Sciences Online Contents Exact Sciences contains the tables of contents and references to articlesfrom approximately 1.800 periodicals from the complete Online Contents database.
 
OLC - General Online Contents General contains the tables of contents and references to articles fromapproximately 500 periodicals.
 
OLC - Humanities Online Contents Humanities contains the tables of contents and references to articles fromapproximately 1.500 periodicals.
 
OLC - Law Online Contents Law contains the tables of contents and article references toapproximately 700 periodicals from the complete Online Contents database.
 
OLC - Social Sciences Online Contents Social Sciences contains the tables of contents and references to articlesfrom approximately 1,100 periodicals from the complete Online Contents database.
 
OPAC or OPC Online Public Access Catalogue, a computer catalog of the books and other materials owned by alibrary.
 
Open Names Service Open Names is a new venture within the Digital and PreservationResources Division that offerslibraries linking and resolution for e-commerce and rights management.Open Names is a transparent, large-scale service that links high-qualityresources from multiple data suppliers using established, standard names,such as International Standard Book Number, Serial Item and ContributionIdentified and International Standard Serials Number and newer names suchas ISTC, IPI and Digital Object Identifier.
 
OUS Storage and lending module of the LBS local library system
This system is for lender and lending data administration.
 
PAIS Public Affairs Information Service.
A venerable library resource, PAIS was founded bylibrarians in 1914 and chartered by the New York State Board of Regents in1954. PAIS and OCLC merged in January 2000. It is based at the New YorkPublic Library.
 
PASCAL PASCAL is a multidisciplinary database of references to articles invarious languages. Pascal covers the major world literature in the field ofscience, technology and medicine.
 
Pathfinders* A subject bibliography (list of titles) designed to lead the user through theprocess of researching a specific topic, or any topic in a particularfield or discipline, in a systematic, step-by-step manner, using the bestfinding tools the library has to offer. Pathfinders can be printed oravailable online. One of the original features of CORC is a systematicapproach to creating pathfinders and sharing them with the librarycommunity.
 
Pica A library cooperativein the Netherlands, serving that country as well as portions of Belgium,France, and Germany. PICA was originally founded with half a million seedrecords from OCLC’s catalog in 1979. In 1999, OCLC acquired a 35%portion of PICA, increasing that share to 60% in 2000. Subsequently, the January 1st, 2002the new organisation OCLC PICA was launched.
 
PresRes Preservation Resources.
Founded in 1985 as the Mid-Atlantic Preservation Service(MAPS), it has been part of OCLC since 1990. PresRes originallyspecialized in high quality, archival-level microfilming, and is now alsotaking the leading in OCLC’s digital preservation initiatives.
 
PiCarta Reference Service for endusers
PiCarta is an integrated, multimaterialdatabase which contains request facilities and which offers access toonline resources and electronic documents among other things.The user who opts for PiCarta, can browse several databases at the sametime by entering one search.
 
PromptCat Provides fast copy cataloging for non-serial titleswith little or no staff intervention. Links order fulfillment by abook vendor to the setting of holdings and delivery of an OCLC-MARCrecord to the library by OCLC. Delivers cataloging recordsfor any title having a monographic record in WorldCat
 
QuestionPoint A new service of OCLC to provide 24 hours a day, 7 days a week reference service throughcooperating libraries. Originated in a Library of Congress/OCLC projectdesigned to provide professional reference serviceto researchers anytime (24/7), anywhere, through an international, digitalnetwork of libraries and related institutions. Also includes a componentdesigned to facilitate local reference sharing cooperatives.
 
 
Regional Catalogue Limburg (RCL) The Regional Catalogue of the Province Limburg in The Netherlands.
 
Repertory of the History of The Netherlands The Dutch national historical bibliography
 
RLG Research Libraries Group.
RLG is a not-for-profit membership corporation of over 160universities, national libraries, archives, historical societies, andother institutions with remarkable collections for research and learning.Quoted from the RLG web site. Sponsors RLIN, the Research Libraries Information Network, a database of holdingsof some of the member organizations of RLG. Often considered an alternateservice provider to OCLC.
 
RotterdamNet The regional catalogue of the city of Rotterdam.
 
 
SABINET The South African Bibliographic Network. The South African distributor for OCLC services.
 
School library A school library serves an elementary, middle, junior high, or high school with curriculumsupport, reference materials, in-service materials for teachers andadministrators, and recreational reading. Not be confused with an academiclibrary, which serves a college, university, or community college.
 
SDI Selective Dissemination of Information
SDI distributes automatically and electronically to end users the tables of contents fromperiodicals in the PiCarta database in which they are interested.
 
Serial* An item that is published repeatedly. One example is a magazine, which might come outdaily (The Columbus Dispatch), weekly (Newsweek), monthly (Oprah), or onanother schedule (Mad). Another example is a book that is published withupdated and revised content each year, such as an automobile repair manualor a travel guide. Compare this to a monograph, which is generallypublished once as a complete entity, although it may be republished laterin the same format, in a new format, or in a revised edition.
 
Service centers OCLC PICA units that provide library and information services to libraries in their region.At the moment there are three OCLC PICA service centers in Europe in the cities of Leiden (NL), Birmingham (UK)and Paris (F; as of summer 2002).
 
SRW The "Search/Retrieve Web Service", SRW,is a proof-of-concept initiative to enablesearching of web databases using the webstandard protocol HTTP and record syntax XML.
 
STCN The STCN is the retrospective national bibliography of TheNederlands until 1800.
 
Subject heading* A word or phraseassigned in a bibliographic record to indicate the most specific subjectof the work, which serves as an access point in a catalog, index, ordatabase search.
 
SUDOC Système Universitaire de Documentation (System for French universities)
 
SWL, Literature on Social Sciences Database The database containsbibliographic information on Dutch publications of scientific institutions,research agencies, governmental and administrative bodies etc. Included areresearch reports, theses and speeches, articles from journals and bookreviews in the field of social sciences.
 
TOC Table of Contents.
The list of introductions, prefaces, chapters, indices, and appendixesfound in a book or magazine, generally found at the very beginning of theitem. Some tables of contents of books in WorldCat are now availableonline through FirstSearch.
 
 
UB University library
 
UKB Cooperative Body of University Libraries, the RoyalLibrary and the library of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Union catalog* A catalog of theholdings of more than one independent library, library system, or librarycollection, indicating the location of each item by the names or locationsymbols of the libraries or collections which own at least one copy.
 
Union list* A complete list ofthe holdings for a group of libraries of materials of a specific type(e.g., serials or annuals), on a certain subject, or in a particularfield, compiled in the interests of library cooperation. The entry foreach bibliographic item includes a list of codes to indicate the librariesthat own at least one copy. Union lists are traditionally printed, butmany have been converted to online databases.
 
User A participating organisation that is not a member of the cooperative, butrather purchases services. For contrast, see 'member'.
 
 
Web ILL A web-based systemfor handling interlibrary loan requests. See 'interlibrary loan'.
 
WorldCat The central asset ofOCLC. The WorldCat database is the most consulted database in highereducation. It holds over 48 million cataloging records created bylibraries around the world, with a new record added every 15 seconds. Therecords span over 4,000 years of recorded knowledge with 400 languagesrepresented. It also includes more than 800 million location listings.
 
WSF (Libraries with a) Regional Support Function
 
 
Z39.50* A standardestablished by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) thatallows computer users to query a remote information retrieval system (better known as a server) using the software of a different system, anddisplay results in the interface of the system used by the client. See here for more information.
 
 
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