Important terms used in this tutorial:

Abstract  -  a brief summary of an article, conference paper, or book.

Acronym  -  a new word or pronounceable and hence memorable name coined from the first or first few letters or parts of a phrase or compound term (HUD for Housing and Urban Development).

Advocacy site - main purpose of this type of site (also called a "soapbox" site) is to sway opinion. Useful for  understanding opinions on a controversial topic, but not necessarily for unbiased information.

Authority - credibility of the site author; indication that the person or organization has the appropriate training, education or experience to write on a particular subject.

Almanac  -  annual publication that contains calendars, facts, statistics, and other miscellaneous information.

Annotated Bibliography  -  a list of works on a  particular topic, with each entry accompanied by a note intended to explain, describe, or evaluate the publication.

Bias - a preference or inclination that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation.

Bibliography  -  a list of citations for books, periodical articles, government documents or other materials.

Biography  -  a written account of a person’s life or the group of literature concerned with people’s lives.

Boolean Logic/Operators  -  words such as AND, OR, and NOT that are used to combine search terms to  expand or narrow the results of a search.

Citation  -  information that fully identifies a publication; usually featuring the author, title, name of work, publisher, and date.  Page and volume numbers plus other information may be included.

Commercial site - main purpose of this type of site is to promote and sell products or services.

Compendium  -  a brief account or summary of a particular subject.

Controlled Vocabulary  -  a set of standard terms specifically chosen to describe the contents of items found within
a database.

Copyright  -  legal protection of ownership of a creative work by the work’s artist, writer, or photographer. Provides the copyright owner the exclusive right to authorize reproduction or other uses of the work for a specific period of time.

Coverage - extent of information on a topic that is provided by a particular site.

Currency - the state of being up-to-date. Some sites are frequently revised or kept current.

Database - a collection of information arranged into individual records to be searched by computer.

Descriptors  -  a word or a group of words used as a subject to describe the content in books, articles, and other materials for the purpose of indexing or organizing these items by topic.

Dictionary  -  a book composed of an alphabetical listing of words with their definitions that often include pronunciation and usage.

Directory  -  a systematically organized list of persons, businesses, organizations, or associations that provides addresses, affiliations, telephone numbers, and similar information.

Dissertation -  a final research project completed by a student in a doctoral program.

Documentation - supplying documents or references to support a position or argument.

Drop-Down Menu (pull down menu or droplist) - a list of options that "drops down" when you click on the downward-pointing arrow placed next to the first item on the list of a menu.

Drunk Mouse - a reference to when the pointer on a computer screen moves around wildly or irregularly

Editorial - an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the opinion of the publishers or editors. (Webster's College Dictionary)

Encyclopedia  -  a reference source containing informational articles that provide brief but thorough overviews of a
range of topics; usually arranged by subject with an index volume to help locate subjects that do not have their own alphabetical entry.

Field  -  a part of a record used for a particular category of data.  For example, TI represents the title field or AU for
the author.

Full-text  -  refers an entire article located in a database that may be printed or downloaded to a disk.

Handbook  -  a collection of information on a subject, meant to be a concise and authoritative reference.

Hits  -  the total number of results or matches that are yielded by a database search.

Holdings  -  the total print and nonprint resources maintained in a library.

Index  -  a systematic guide to the contents of a file, book, document, or group of document in an arrangement that represents the contents, references, page numbers, etc.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) - a sometimes free or fee-based service to patrons provided by libraries to lend or borrow copies of articles or actual books that are not owned by that particular facility.

Internet  -  a worldwide network of computers that can be accessed via the campus computer network.

Journal  -  a periodical containing articles or other materials such as reports, proceedings, or transactions issued by a society, an organization, or an institution.

Keywords – significant terms or phrases that are utilized when performing a database search. 

Limiter - a search option that lets the searcher reduce the number of results in a more focused manner.

Magazine  -  a periodical publication for general interest such as news, current events, and popular materials.

Microforms (microfiche, microfilm)  -  documents, often ones that are bulky or likely to deteriorate rapidly, which have been photographed and reduced in size to minimize storage space for preservation.

Newspaper  -  a serial issued at stated frequent intervals (daily, weekly, semi-weekly), usually containing news, opinions, advertisements, and other items of current or local interest.

Online catalog  -  a computerized catalog that contains records for the library's collection.

Peer review  -  refers to a scholarly journal article or other work which has been submitted to a process of evaluation by one or more experts on the subject  to determine whether it is worthy of publication.

Periodical  -  publication that is issued at least twice a year, including journals, magazines and newspapers. Current periodicals are those that have recently arrived. Bound periodicals are back issues that have been covered with a binding and placed on the shelves.

Periodical index and abstracts - a list of articles that have appeared in journals, magazines, or newspapers and feature author, title, name of periodical, volume, pages and date of publication.  Abstracts are indexes that also contain summaries of the content of the article.

Phrase searching (or character string)  -  a search that includes more than one keyword and is typed exactly in the same sequence as it would in a document.

Plagiarism  -  copying or closely imitating the work of another writer or composer for the purpose of passing the results off as original work.

Popular magazine -  publications targeted for mass market sale at newsstands, supermarkets, or chain stores.

Primary source  -  a manuscript, record, or document providing original research or documentation.

Record - information about a particular document that is divided into fields. A Full Record contains citation information that may include a summary, abstract, or a full-text article or document.

Reference/information site - main purpose of this type of site is to provide access to useful information and services. Often provided by universities, government agencies and commercial publishers.

Research or Subject Guide  - a list of sources: directories, indexes, journals, and other reference works for the literature of a specific discipline or subject area.

Review - a critical evaluation of a composition or work such as a book, movie, or play.  Some periodicals are devoted entirely to reviews or critiques of this nature.

Root word - the fundamental or base part of a word upon which other letters can be added to form new words.

Scholarly journal  -  authoritative works written by experts in a field, reviewed by other experts, and representing the results of scholarly research.

Search engine  -  a tool that allows you to search for words that occur within Web pages.

Search strategy  -  a series of steps for planning and preparing an efficient way to collect pertinent information on a
given topic.

Secondary source  -  materials or sources that contain information that has been cited, translated, or based upon another primary or original source.

Site publisher - the organization hosting a site on its Web server or the individual/organization that holds the copyright on a site.

Site recognition - measures of the value of a site include awards, positive reviews, inclusion in selective Web directories, and links to it by many other sites.

Subject encyclopedia  -  an encyclopedia devoted to a specific subject or field of study.

Subject heading  -  terms or headings assigned to books and articles and used to index these items by topic. Determining the correct headings for a specific database or catalog is an important part of effective research.

Synonym  -  a word whose meaning is the same as that of another.

Thesaurus  -  a reference book that provides synonyms and antonyms, as well as broader and narrower terms
for vocabulary.

Truncation  -  typing a special symbol (*  !  ?) at the end of a root word to retrieve all possible endings for that word.

URL (uniform resource locator) - the exclusive address to any web site or page.

World Wide Web  -  a client-server information system that uses the Internet to access computers containing millions of hypertext documents.

Yearbook  -  an annual compendium of facts and statistics on a particular subject for the preceding year.