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A
- Abstract
- a summary of an article or book
- Annotation
- a note added as a comment or explanation.
- Ask-a-Librarian
- an easy way to quickly send a question to your NE Librarians through e-mail
B
- Bibliography (References)
- a list of works referred to in a text or used by the author in its writing.
- Boolean Terms (Boolean Operators)
- the use of the words AND, OR, and NOT to indicate relationships between search terms. For example, a search using the keywords "peanut butter AND jelly" will only return results that contain both terms; a search using "peanut butter NOT jelly" will return results that exclude "jelly;" and searching for "peanut butter OR jelly" will give results that contain one term or the other.
C
- Call Number
- a combination of letters and/or numbers assigned to a book or other library material to indicate its place on the shelf. Most colleges and universities, including Ivy Tech, use the Library of Congress call number system to organize materials.
- Catalog
- a database that allows you to find information about the materials available in the library, including the title, author, location, and whether or not it is already checked out (see IvyCat).
- Circulation Desk
- the desk inside the library where users check out materials or ask for staff assistance. Course reserves, designated by the instructor, are also kept behind the circulation desk.
- Citation
- a brief description of a work that contains its basic information, such as title, author, publisher, etc., to identify and locate the item. Common citation formats include MLA and APA.
- Collection
- a collection of information organized for rapid search and retrieval by a computer. The information in a library database may consist of newspaper articles, journal articles, citations, encyclopedia entries, descriptions of books (as in the library catalog), etc.
- Copyright
- “Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of ‘original works of authorship,’ including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works.” (United States Copyright Office, http://www.copyright.gov, accessed February 20, 2006)
- Course Reserves
- textbooks and videos provided by instructors for students to use while in the library which cannot be checked out.
D
- Database
- a collection of information organized for rapid search and retrieval by a computer. The information in a library database may consist of newspaper articles, journal articles, citations, encyclopedia entries, descriptions of books (as in the library catalog), etc.
F
- Full-text
- the whole article or document. A number of databases allow you to narrow your search to only view those articles whose full-text is available.
I
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
- a library service that obtains books, articles, or other materials from other libraries.
- Invisible Web
- the part of the internet that most search engines won't find; usually refers to electronic databases such as those available through libraries.
- ISBN (International Standard Book Number)
- the 10 or 13-digit unique number that identifies every book published. The ISBN is usually on the back of the book near the bar code and on the inside copyright page.
- ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)
- similar to the ISBN for book, the ISSN is the unique identification number assigned to periodicals.
- IvyCat
- Ivy Tech’s online catalog permits users to search for items in a single Ivy Tech library or all Ivy Tech libraries simultaneously. Each item in the library has its own record in IvyCat which includes a call number, citation information, location, and other information about the material.
J
- Journal
- an academic periodical, similar in appearance to a magazine. For research purposes, ideal journals contain "peer-reviewed" or “scholarly” articles that have been evaluated and critiqued by one or more experts in the field (see Scholarly Journals)
K
- Keywords
- significant words or phrases describing your topic that are used to search for relevant sources
L
- LibGuide
- an online resource built to provide access to information and instruction needed when using the library for an assignment
- Limiter
- An option in a search engine that restricts or limits results by a certain property (such as date or peer-reviewed) or type.
M
- Magazine
- a periodical intended for non-professionals, usually covering non-academic topics and rarely listing references
N
- NoodleTools (NoodleBib)
- a service the library subscribes to which you can use to help create your citation pages for papers
P
- PDF
- a file format which is fairly universal - most people can download and open it if they have Adobe Reader on their computers.
- Peer-reviewed (Refereed, Scholarly) Article
- an article that has been scrutinized by experts in the field and found to be acceptable before it is published. Some article databases, including EBSCOhost and ProQuest, allow you to narrow your search so that you only retrieve peer-reviewed articles.
- Periodical (Serial)
- a publication that is published in regular intervals such as daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Newspapers, journals, and magazines are all periodicals.
- Plagiarism
- “presenting within one’s own work the ideas, representations, or words of another person without customary and proper acknowledgement of that person’s authorship.” (Ivy Tech Community College, Student Handbook)
- Primary Source
- a work or document whose creator experienced firsthand what is being described
- Print
- a print source is a physical copy of the source, as opposed to an electronic version
- Publication Finder
- a database listing all of the periodicals available through the Ivy Tech library, including links to the databases where the periodicals can be found
R
- Record
- a set of information about an item, including descriptive keywords, that can be searched for in a database.
- Reference book
- a book that is generally used to look up pieces of information rather than read cover-to-cover. Our reference books have a blue dot on the spine and cannot be checked out of the library.
- Reserves or "On Reserve"
- textbooks and videos provided by instructors for students to use while in the library which cannot be checked out.
S
- Scholarly (Refereed, Peer-reviewed) Journals
- a journal whose contents are written by specialists for specialists. Contents are normally peer-reviewed and provide references.
- Search Engine
- software that searches the internet for websites that contain keywords you specify
- Secondary Source
- a document that interprets, analyzes, or discusses primary source works
V
- Virtual Library
- any of the resources available on the library's website, including databases, research guides, and ebooks
