Cataloguing and Processing
A Resource for School Library Personnel
Glossary
A-G Canada Ltd: A library software company which provides an online bibliographic database service. Formerly ISM Library Information Services which was formerly Utlas.
Added entry: Any entry made in addition to the main entry. Added entries can be made for joint authors, illustrators, editors, compilers, translators, series, title, and subjects.
AMICUS: A bilingual bibliographic database of the National Library of Canada. Provides a fee-based search service which allows users to obtain information for cataloguing support, interlibrary loan, reference, and bibliographic verification.
Application software: Programs written to perform specific functions (e.g., inventory control).
Barcode: A system for automatic identification of items, such as books in a library, by means of printed bars of different widths which represent numbers. The code is read by a light-sensitive peripheral device similar to a light pen.
BiblioFile: A compact disc MARC database.
Bibliographic utility: A network consisting of a large union bibliographic database, accessible online to time-sharing members. The network may also provide a variety of other services such as cataloguing. OCLC, A-G Canada Ltd., TKM, and AMICUS provide access to bibliographic utilities.
Boolean algebra: A system of symbolic logic similar in form to algebra but dealing with logical rather than numeric relationships. It was named for its creator George Boole.
Boolean search: A search method using logical delimiters to specify the search object (e.g., all scientists who were born before 1920 and were women who worked in either medicine or physics). Using "and" in a search restricts the possibilities (the object must satisfy both criteria); using or expands them (the object may satisfy either criteria).
Card catalogue: A list of the holdings of a particular library. The list is put on cards.
Catalogue card: A card which contains information on the contents of a library resource and its location. These cards are put into a catalogue or set of drawers.
Cataloguing: The technical process of describing a work bibliographically and assigning a call number. It includes determining the main entry, describing the item, and assigning added entries, subject entries, and a call number.
CD-ROM (Compact Disk -- Read Only Memory): A 4 3/4 inch diameter CD-ROM has a storage capacity comparable to 1500 floppy disks (i.e., over 600 million characters).
CIP (Cataloguing-In-Publication): This is cataloguing information which is usually put on the verso of the title page of a book prior to its publication. The cataloguing information is supplied by the National Library or Library of Congress and its distributed as MARC records.
Classifying: This technical process involves the allocation of a class number to an item that shows its subject and indicates its location in the collection.
Corporate body: An organization or group of persons that is identified by a particular name (e.g., association, government, government agency, religious body, local church, and conference).
Database: A file of information maintained and available for recall on a computer.
Descriptive cataloguing: This cataloguing process is concerned with describing a physical item, identifying the main entry, and selecting added entries.
Dictionary catalogue: A catalogue in which all entries (e.g., author, title, added, subject) are filed in one alphabet.
Entry: A record of an item in a catalogue. In addition to the main entry, there are title entries, series entries, other types of added entries, and subject entries.
Field: In database management systems, a single data item within a record. It is used for a specific category of information.
GMD (General Material Designation): It is included to alert the user that the item is not a book. It is appended in square brackets after the title and shows the precise format of the item.
Imprint: Publishing details such as where a book was published, what company published it and the date of publication.
ISBN (International Standard Book Number): A unique 10-digit number assigned by a publisher to identify a specific book. It is hoped that in time it will cover all publishers in the world.
ISM (Library Information Services [formerly Utlas]): See A-G Canada Ltd.
Jobber: A supplier, usually a wholesaler, who sells a variety of items produced by many different publishers.
Kit: 1. An item containing two or more categories of material, no one of which is identifiable as the predominant constituent of the item; also designated "multimedia item." 2. A single-medium package of textual material (e.g., a "lab kit" and a set of activity cards).
Main entry: A full catalogue entry giving all the information necessary for identifying a work. The main entry includes the tracings for all other entries, or access points, under which a work is entered in the catalogue. The main entry is usually an author entry.
MARC (Machine Readable Cataloguing Record): It is a record that a computer can read and interpret. Each record conforms to a national standard for communication of bibliographic information, established and used by the National Library and the Library of Congress.
OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue): It is an automated catalogue with subject, title and author search options directly available to patrons.
Processing: This technical process involves the physical preparation of an item for shelf use and loan.
Recon: Retrospective conversion is the process of manual cataloguing information being changed into machine readable cataloguing.
Record: In database management systems, a collection of related data items, or fields, which are treated as a single unit. It is comparable to a record in a manually kept file.
Shelf list: A record of materials in a library usually arranged in order by call number.
Statement of responsibility: A statement transcribed from the item being described, relating to authors or to corporate bodies issuing the item or to persons or corporate bodies responsible for the performance of the content of the item.
Subfield: Each type of data within a field.
Subfield code: Each subfield is preceded by a subfield code.
Tag: A three digit number which precedes each field in a MARC record. The tag identifies for a computer the field and the kind of data that follows (e.g. 020 tag marks the ISBN field).
TKM: A Brandon computer library software company.
Tracings: Notations which are listed at the bottom of a catalogue card with Arabic numbers preceding them. They tell the teacher-librarian what other cards, or access points, exist. This record is usually on the main entry card and shelf list and shows all additional entries for a work in a catalogue.
Union catalogue: A catalogue that lists, completely or in part, the holdings of more than one library or collection.
Verso: The left-hand page in an open book. It is usually even numbered.
Wholesaler: A merchant middleman who stocks and sells in quantity chiefly to retailers, other merchants, or industrial, institutional, and commercial users mainly for resale or business use.