The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Are you confused by the words your librarian uses? Do the instructions on the Help screens in the library's online catalog leave you in the dark? Below are some of the terms we use. Knowing them will make your searching more effective. And if you're still confused--please ask a librarian. We'll try to make it clear.

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

Almanac -- A reference book, usually updated annually, containing lists, charts and tables of useful factual and statistical information either on a wide variety of topics or a single subject.

Alphabetic Search (also, Browse Search)-- A search method that allows one to retrieve items from an alphabetical list of authors, titles, subjects and call numbers. Useful when you know the exact title or the exact name of the author and the list that you retrieve will not be too large.

Annotated Bibliography -- A bibliography that includes a brief description of each article or book listed. The description helps the reader evaluate the content and usefulness of each item to his research.

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

Archives -- 1. Documents created by a person or organization in the course of the conduct of affairs and preserved for their historical value. 2. The place where archival materials are kept. At Peabody the Archives Department is located on the second level of the Friedheim Library. 3. The back issues of a periodical stored in a computerized database.

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

Bibliography -- A list of citations to journal articles, books and other materials on a particular subject or by a particular author. This may be in the form of a list of references given at the end of research reports and books or in a separate document or book.

Boolean Operators ( or Logical operators) -- In searching databases the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT are used to express the relationship of one term to another.

Examples from the Johns Hopkins Library Catalog:

performance OR anxiety -- (retrieves a very large list including one or the other term, or both)
performance AND anxiety -- (retrieves only those records that include both keywords)

"performance anxiety" -- (retrieves just those records that include the term performance anxiety

"performance anxiety" OR stagefright (retrieves records that either include the term performance anxiety or the word stagefright)

"performance anxiety" NOT stagefright -- (retrieves records that include the term "performance anxiety" but not the word stagefright

Browse search -- See Alphabetic search.

Browser -- Software program used to view and interact with various types of Internet resources available on the world wide web. Netscape and Internet Explorer are two common examples.

Call Number -- The unique combination of letters and numbers on each item in the library to group materials and enable the material to be found on the shelves. For a guide to the call numbers for printed music and books about music see M: Music and Books on Music, the Library of Congress Classification, 1998 ed. (Ref. Z696 .U5 M 1999)

Cataloging -- The department in the library responsible for entering all the information necessary about library materials in the online catalog.

CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory)-- A book, an index, or a reference work that is stored on a compact disc and accessed and searched through a computer.

Checked out -- A term indicating that a particular item is on loan to a patron.

Circulation Desk -- The counter where patrons check out and return library materials. Renewals, recalls, holds, reserves, and interlibrary loan requests are also handled here. You may also ask here for help by a librarian.

Citation -- A reference or footnote to a book, article, or other material that contains all the information necessary to identify and locate the work. A book citation includes author, title, publisher and year of publication; a journal citation includes author, article title and periodical title, date, volume and page numbers of the particular article. This is the information you will need to write your own bibliographies.

Controlled Vocabulary -- Assigned standardized terms and names used in searching a specific database or catalog. These terms will differ for each database.

Copyright -- Legal privilege granted to an author, composer, etc. for exclusive rights of publication and distribution of a work. Libraries have a special interest in fair use of copyrighted material.

Database -- An organized collection of information, data, or citations stored in electronic format that can be searched for specific information or records by techniques specific to each database.

Default Operator -- The specific relations between words (and,/or phrases) that is assumed by a database if none is specified. This differs from one database to another and can have a major impact on how the words you enter are searched. In the Johns Hopkins University Libraries Catalog, terms entered without Boolean operators are assumed to be joined by AND. You must specify if the relation should be an OR relation, or place a term such as " performance anxiety" in quotation marks to search the phrase rather than the two separate words.

Descriptor -- Another word for subject heading used in many electronic journal databases.

Dissertation -- A text written in completion of requirements for a doctoral degree at a university.

Dissertation Abstracts International -- An online index which lists bibliographic information about dissertations and includes an abstract (summary) of their contents. This is available online through ProQuest Digital Dissertations. The dissertations themselves must be requested through Inter Library Loan or directly from University Microfilms International. Please DO NOT request individual volumes of Dissertation Abstracts to be sent to the library.

Encyclopedia -- A book or set of books of information articles usually arranged in alphabetical order.

Essay -- A short literary composition on a single subject expressing a personal view.

False Drops -- Records retrieved by a keyword search that are not pertinent to the topic searched. One way to minimize false drops is to use author keywords and subject keywords rather than always relying on general keywords.

Fields (in Electronic databases) -- A particular section of a bibliographic record containing specific information such as the author, title, or publication date of an item.

Format -- The physical form of information as opposed to the content. A piece of music may be in score format, or it may be on a CD or a DVD. A journal may be in print format, or in microfilm, or on a full-text online database.

Full-Text Database -- An online database in which the entire text of an article can be viewed, printed and/ or downloaded.

Hits -- Results retrieved from a search in an electronic database.

Hold -- A service provided by the Library allowing a patron to put a "hold" on an item checked out to another patron. When the item is returned, it will be held at the Circulation Desk.

Index -- 1. An alphabetical list found at the back of a book that presents the topics or terms discussed in that book. 2. A printed or electronic publication listing citations to periodical articles or books.

In-Process -- A term that indicates an item has been received at the library but is not yet ready for circulation. Ask a librarian for information about obtaining items marked in-process.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) -- A service whereby the Friedheim Library borrows library materials from other libraries for the current students, faculty and staff of Peabody Conservatory and the staff and faculty of the Peabody Prep if the material they need is not available in the Hopkins Libraries. Forms for requesting materials are on the Library's web page and at the circulation desk.

Internet -- A group of interconnected worldwide computers using an agreed on set of standards and protocols to request information from and send information to each other.

Journal -- A publication containing scholarly articles written by experts on current research in a particular field. Articles are often accompanied by an abstract and bibliography.

Keyword Search -- A search method that allows the search for individual words in a bibliographic record. General keyword searches find the word in many different parts of the record. Title, author and subject keywords search only those parts of the record.

Limit -- A way of reducing the number of items retrieved in a keyword search. In the Johns Hopkins Libraries Catalog advanced keyword searches can be limited by language, material type (for example, printed music, musical sound recordings) and by date. (Note: Limiting by location is rarely helpful for finding music materials, because most of the music in the JHU catalog is located at Peabody anyway.)

Logical operators -- See Boolean Operators.

Magazine -- A periodical published primarily for the general public rather than for scholars.

Microfiche -- Flat, plastic sheets containing micro-images of pages read using a special machine.

Microfilm -- A film containing reduced images of printed matter and stored on a reel which may be read on a special machine.

Microform -- Printed material that has been photographed and reduced to a film format to help preserve the material and decrease the space needed for storage. Special equipment is needed to read stored information. Typical formats include microfilm and microfiche.

Monograph -- A non-serial item (that is, an item complete in either one part or complete or intended to be complete in a finite number of separate parts).

Online Catalog -- A computerized database which can be searched by various search methods such as author, title, subject, or call number to find out what a library owns and how to find it. Our catalog, the Catalog of the Johns Hopkins University Libraries, is available through the World Wide Web and can be searched both by alphabetic searches and by keyword searches.

Peer-Reviewed Journal -- See Refereed Journal

Periodical -- A publication with a unique title that is issued at more or less regular intervals (eg., weekly, monthly, quarterly) and is expected to continue indefinitely. Examples include journals and magazines.

Plagiarism -- Using another person's work as your own and without giving credit to the original author.

Recall -- A request for the return of checked out library material before the due date. This is done at the Circulation Desk.

Record -- See Bibliographic record

Refereed Journal -- A journal in which articles are reviewed and selected by professional colleagues for publication. Check the Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory available through the Electronic Resources page of the Sheridan Libraries of JHU to determine if a publication is refereed.

Reference Stacks -- The area at the front of the library where non-circulating, frequently-used materials are kept. These include indexes, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference materials. These are labeled Friedheim -- Reference Coll. in the copy holding part of their record in the online library catalog.

Renewal -- Extending the loan period or due date of materials. Ask at the Circulation Desk.

Reserves -- A library service that manages the circulation of certain required course materials selected by instructors and made available for short-term, usually 2-hour loans. Materials are kept at the Circulation Desk and at the Audio-Visual Desk. To find a list of reserve materials for a particular course do a keyword search for your teacher?s name, the course number or a word from its title and the word reserve or reserves. For example McLean AND 651 AND reserve.

Scholarly journal -- See Journal and Refereed Journal

Serial -- Library term for publications issued at regular intervals. These include periodicals, journals, magazines, newspapers, annual reports and conference proceedings. In the JHU Online Catalog these can be found by using the Alphabetical Journal/Newspaper Title search or the Journal/Newspaper Title Keyword search in the basic or the advanced keyword searches.

Series -- A group of separate items related to one another by the fact that each of them has in addition to its own title, a second title that applies to the group as a whole.

Subject Heading -- A standard search term assigned to an item record to identify its primary content. Subject headings for music materials may be found in the large red Library of Congress Subject Heading volumes on the index table in the Reference Area and also by using the Alphabetic Browse Search of Subjects in the online catalog.

Subject Search -- A search that makes use of the subject headings assigned to the record by the cataloger. An alphabetic subject search retrieves a list of subject headings and subject subdivisions; a subject keyword search retrieves individual records that include the words entered in their subject fields.

Terminal -- One station that is part of a computer system; an individual computer station.

Thesaurus -- A list of subject headings or descriptors assigned in a particular database, index, or online catalog that can be used to search that database.

Truncation -- 1. In the JHU Catalog's Alphabetical/Browse search there is automatic right truncation so there is no need to type in the entire title, name or subject. For example, typing in the title phrase one flew over will bring a list including One flew over the Atlantic and One flew over the cuckoo?s nest. Searching the author Mozart will bring up items by Mozart, Leopold and after that, items by Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. 1. In a keyword search, a word root followed by a truncation symbol to retrieve variant endings. -- 3. In the JHU's keyword indexes an asterisk * at the end of a word stands for multiple letters: so sonat* would retrieve records with the words sonata, sonatas and sonatinas. A question mark ? at the end of a word stands for one single letter: So a keyword search for sonata? would retrieve sonata and sonatas.

URL -- Uniform Resource Locator. The unique address of every item on the Internet used to locate and retrieve a particular page.

World Wide Web (WWW) -- An information system using the Internet to access information stored on computers worldwide.

Last updated September 5, 2006 uem