Glossary of terms

Term	Definition
Autocomplete function	Databases automatically display options for searching (e.g. author, subject).
Bibliographic data	Bibliographic data is the data that identifies a work, the most basic of which are the author, title and publication details. Bibliographic data is stored in data fields in the database.
Bibliographic record	A document description unit, which contains the bibliographical data necessary for the identification of the work in a uniform structure.
Bibliography	From the Greek words byblos and graphia = to collect data of books. A bibliography is a list of documents arranged according to their bibliographic data. A general bibliography is a list of publications grouped by subject, treating a document as a single unit, i.e. it does not typically list the studies or articles from a collection or journal that it contains. A specialised (subject) bibliography is a list of publications in a field of study, containing bibliographic data on books, articles and studies.
Boolean operators	Operational signals that describe the relationship between search terms in electronic databases. They can be used to specify the overlapping (common) part (AND operation) or the set (OR operation) of result sets corresponding to the searched terms, or the subset containing one term and excluding the other (NOT operation).
Citation	A citation is a reference that authors use in their own work to point to an idea or a finding that originates from another author, with the specific bibliographic source of that idea or finding indicated.
Citation manager	An offline or online application designed to help you gather material from the start of your research and provide a practical toolkit for the writing process. It helps you to collect bibliographic data on documents. The data collected can be stored and retrieved according to your own criteria, and attachments can be stored. The collected data can be used to create a bibliography. It can be used for citation in your academic work.
Citation style	A citation style is a consistent way of formatting references and citations to the sources used in a paper. Typically, institutions develop citation styles and expect authors who publish with them to adhere to these standards. Different styles are identified by the name of the institution that created them, e.g. MLA, APA, Harvard.
Codex	Codex (plural codices) is a term collectively used for handwritten books. Codices were most commonly used in the Middle Ages, before the advent of printing. Initially, the parchment sheets were placed between wooden boards, hence the name codex, from the Latin word 'caudex', meaning 'block of wood'.
Collection	Refers to the stock of books and periodicals as well as other printed and electronic documents held by libraries.
Collection scope	A library's collection management profile, which defines the range (type and/or subject) of publications it acquires on a regular basis.
Colophon	A colophon is a brief statement printed on the reverse side of the title page of a book or at the end of a book, containing certain technical information as well as publication information.
Cuneiform script	Cuneiform script is a type of writing invented by the Sumerians. It was similar to pictographic writing, attempting to depict objects and concepts. Eventually, it became increasingly abstract and more and more similar to alphabetic writing.
Copyright	Copyright is the right of the creator of an intellectual work to control its use, which also means that it cannot be freely copied or used without attribution.
Data aggregator	A company that builds databases of resources from multiple publishers; or a database that provides a collection of such resources.
Data field	A small unit of a database record used to store individual pieces of data. In a library catalogue, a data field refers to for example author, title, subject, etc.
Database	A database is an organised collection of records consisting of multiple data fields. A computer record with a logical structure for storing and retrieving information. One type of library database is the library catalogue, where the record is the catalogue card containing the details of the work, and the data fields are its individual bibliographic data.
Database record	A collection of independently manageable, logically related data fields, one of the basic units of a computer database.
The deep / invisible web	It belongs to the deep or invisible Web, which is not visible to general search engines and/or cannot be indexed by their search robots. This could include closed forums and their posts, emails stored in our electronic mailbox, our e-banking transactions, some social networking sites, closed databases or library catalogues, or any site with a code that prevents it from being indexed.
Digital literacy	Digital literacy is the ability to navigate and make complex use of the content services provided by modern IT tools.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a code used internationally to uniquely identify each digital document, while also functioning as a link to the online document it identifies.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)	Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a software solution that ensures that only the rightful owner of a purchased piece of content can actually use it. The term refers not only to the range of technological solutions that provide technical and legal protection for digital content in general, but also to a specific software-based way of implementing such protection.
Digitization	The transfer of information stored on an analog carrier to a computer by using a special device, which converts traditional analog symbols into digits.
Disciplinary	Research within one discipline. A disciplinary database is a database with documents covering only one discipline.
Document	The term 'document' is a general collective term for information carriers, which covers not only traditional information carriers (books, periodicals, etc.), but also audiovisual and electronic information carriers.
E-book / eBook	A document format containing text and images that is created and distributed electronically and can only be read using a digital device and special software. A true eBook is not in a bound format, so its layout adapts to the screen of the device; part of its layout can be changed while reading.
E-ink	It is a technology specifically developed for displaying eBooks. It is based on millions of tiny microcapsules that contain positively charged white pigments and negatively charged black pigments, all “floating” in a special transparent liquid. These white and black pigments become visible on the electronic paper depending on the electric charge applied.
eduID	The eduID is an alliance of academic institutions that aims to make web user identification between and within institutions consistent, transparent and therefore easy to manage. It is also an international user ID for higher education institutions, allowing the use of self-created and subscribed databases with a single registration. The relationship with the institution is constantly monitored, ensuring that only authorised users have access to certain content. With this identifier, databases subscribed to in the institution can be accessed remotely, not only within the institution. At the same time, institutions form a federation of trust, whose members accept each other's users as identified. Thus, a user is identified by the system when visiting any member of the federation and is able to access the online services belonging to them.
Electronic document	Documents are considered to be ‘electronic documents’ if they carry information in digital form, regardless of their content.
Electronic library	A library-like collection of documents stored in digital format, or part of a traditional library's collection of electronic documents, now mostly accessible remotely via the Internet.
Filter (facet)	In databases, including library catalogues, it means the ability to enable and disable various filtering criteria, so that the given set of results can be further narrowed down by using facets, e.g. by genre, language, year, etc.
Full-text	The full-text of a work or works is available through a given service, not just relevant metadata. Searching in a database may not only involve searching in metadata but also in full-texts.
Glossary	A glossary is a list of terms typically used in a field of knowledge, with the meaning of each word explained.
Hieroglyphics	Hieroglyphics is the advanced pictographic script used by the ancient Egyptians, whose signs had abstract meanings.
HTML	HTML stands for ‘HyperText Markup Language’, which is a standard for hypertext documents on the internet.
Hungarian Science Bibliography (MTMT)	A database for the official registration and presentation of the results of scientific research in Hungary. The database provides a controlled way to upload data on the scientific work and performance of researchers from participating institutions. Its purpose is to present, record and measure scientific performance on a bibliographic level.
Hypertext	A hypertext is a text in which certain parts of the text are electronically linked to other parts of the same text or to other texts. The internet itself, in its current form, is essentially based on such hypertext (HTML) documents.
Imprint	An imprint provides information about the editor(s), the publisher, and the printing house of a periodical.
Incunable / incunabulum	Incunabula are books produced in the first era of printing, before 31 December 1500. They were more like codices than the books of today.
Information retrieval system	A system that facilitates communication between the user and documents, document descriptions.
Initial capital	In codices and early books, the name of a larger, decorated initial letter that introduces a column, chapter or paragraph. The name comes from the Latin initium = beginning.
Interdisciplinary	Multidisciplinary collaboration, interdisciplinary research. Effective research requires several disciplines to work together in terms of content and methodology. An ‘interdisciplinary’ database is a database with documents covering multiple disciplines.
Interlibrary loan	Interlibrary loan is the name of a group of library services. It is based on cooperation between libraries to provide users with documents that are not available locally. In Hungary, the service is coordinated by the National Széchényi Library, in a network of thousands of Hungarian and foreign libraries that send and receive documents. Individuals can make inter-library requests as registered members of partner libraries in the system.
ISBN-number	ISBN is short for International Standard Book Number, which is a code used internationally to uniquely identify each book.
ISSN-number	ISSN is short for International Standard Serial Number, which is a code used internationally to uniquely identify each periodical.
Legal Deposit	Legal deposit is a legal obligation which requires any organisation or individual producing any type of documentation in multiple copies to deposit one or more copies with a recognised national institution, usually a national library.
Library catalogue	The system, that allows versatile retrieval of documents, previously in the form of lists and then of cards, now mostly operates as an online catalogue. A database, usually free of charge, containing mainly electronic records of the library's holdings. It may also include other databases and services in addition to the library's collection. It is also known as an OPAC (Open Public Access Catalogue).
Metadata	The term 'metadata' means data about data. In terms of library documents, it provides key data in connection with a given document so that it can be easily identified and retrieved.
Metasearch engine	An application that submits a given search term or phrase to multiple search engines and/or databases and searches them all simultaneously. The metasearch engine displays the results in a list on its own interface, starting with the one it considers most relevant.
Miniature	A ‘miniature’ is a relatively small, hand-painted illustration used to decorate the pages of codices.
Multidisciplinary	A database that covers a number of disciplines.
Open Access	Under open access, scientific results are accessible to anyone, and funds for publication are collected from the authors of articles and books. Open Access has several models: The most important is the Green route, which is self-archiving, whereby authors deposit a version of their manuscript (preprint, postprint, publisher's version) in an institutional or subject-specific open access document server, a repository. The Gold route involves the publication of scholarly articles in open access journals. Publications are peer-reviewed in the same way as printed texts, but the author or university pays an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication, because the publisher covers the costs of open access publication. The contract with the publisher defines the rights of authors and regulates the use of Open Access documents. There is also the platinum or diamond route, where a researcher publishes in Open Access journals that do not charge an article processing fee, but ensure that the articles are accessible to anyone free of charge. Many of these journals are published by not-for-profit (government-funded) research institutions or universities. Finally, in the hybrid model, there are non-Open Access journals where you can buy Open Access publication of individual articles. Such articles can be downloaded free of charge from the publisher's website, but other publications are still only available for a subscription fee.
Optical character recognition (OCR)	Optical character recognition (OCR) is the electronic conversion of analogue text by computer. OCR software recognises the shapes of letters and assembles them into words.
Papyrus scroll	A papyrus scroll is a material made from papyrus reeds, suitable for writing, which is stored rolled up.
Parchment	Finely worked animal skin, initially stored in scrolls (like papyrus), later in folded sheets. Many of the codices were also written on this material. Parchment was invented in the ancient city of Pergamon.
PDF or Portable Document Format	The most common document standard, designed primarily for formatted, almost "print-ready" documents. PDF files have very limited editing capabilities, but can be viewed and read with a wide range of programs. If the scanned PDF is made from an analogue book, it can be a series of images only, or it can be one where the text is OCR-recognised. This creates a so-called "two-layer" PDF, with scanned images of the book pages, but with searchable and copyable text underneath the images. The already digitised text is converted into a PDF that retains the graphic appearance and contains the text as described above.
Pictographic writing	This is one of the oldest forms of writing, in which things were represented by a sketchy picture. A special, advanced form is the hieroglyphs used by the Egyptians.
Plagiarism	Taking the research results of other authors, without quotation marks or citation, and presenting them as one's own ideas or results in a way that is likely to mislead the reader. Precise attribution allows a clear separation between the source and the author's ideas and text.
Preprint	In academic publishing is a version that precedes formal peer review and actual publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal.
Repository	A repository is an electronic library collection (database) primarily for archiving and sharing documents. It is usually created in universities and research institutes. It describes the uploaded documents, makes them available for download and links them to other databases. This often allows repository indexing systems to connect documents to the world's scholarly bloodstream.
Responsive	Responsive refers to the way a document, whether a web page or other electronic document, scrolls across different devices and adapts to the screen of the device. In effect, its format is unbounded and can be transformed in use.
Search term	A keyword or combination of keywords used in a literature search to describe the topic that is being researched. Well chosen search terms optimise the number of relevant results.
Truncation	The technique of searching text databases by entering only part of the word you are looking for and using a special character (e.g. * or ?) to indicate that the word is incomplete. Most systems can handle words truncated from the right (the beginning of the word is entered), some can handle words truncated from the left (the end of the word is entered).
Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)	UDC is one of the library methods of organising knowledge and its carriers, which divides the sciences into ten main classes. A simpler version is used for the thematic arrangement of documents in reading room systems.
XML	XML stands for ‘Extensible Markup Language’, which is designed primarily to allow structured text and information to be shared over the internet. XML files not only contain text but also structural information about the text.

Contemporary library and information skills

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Glossary of terms