Technical Services Department GLOSSARY

Inevitably, when a group of people work together on complex tasks they develop their own private language. New words are coined and familiar words take on new meanings. In technical services work we have inherited a rich vocabulary from our predecessors, but we have added many new terms as we moved to automated processing. To facilitate training new staff and improve communication between staff and units, the Technical Services Department unit heads and supervisors have prepared a glossary of technical services terms and jargon. They based this glossary on one created for the Cornell University Libraries and borrowed terms and definitions from the Anglo-American cataloguing rules and other sources. They have added many NYU-specific terms and have edited definitions to reflect local usage.

This glossary is meant to be a work-in-progess. As necessary, we will add new terms and revise definitions. TSD staff are encouraged to suggest additions and clarification to this document.

Thanks go to Sherman Clarke, Lori El-Hewie, Susan Hayes, Beth Jacoby, Peter Kingsley, Breon Krug and Marie Spina for their contributions and special thanks to Sherman Clarke for coordinating this effort and editing the document.

NOTE: Glossary entries are generally spelled out with a cross-reference from the initialism or acronym. Some terms used in definitions are themselves also in the glossary. Terms which are used in a general sense are generally not included.

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - JK - L - M - N - O - PQ - R - S - T - U - V - W - XYZ

AACR: Anglo-American cataloguing rules. General rules for descriptive cataloging and access points.

AACR2: The second edition of AACR.

AACR2R: The second edition, 1988 revision, of AACR.

Abstract: A brief summary of a book, pamphlet or periodical article.

Academic Computing Facility: The central service organization at NYU responsible for computer and network support to teaching faculty, students, and staff. Administrative support is provided by the University Computer Center.

Academic year: Begins with the fall term and ends with graduation in May or June.

Access: (n.) In general, the availability of information; ability or privilege to obtain wanted materials such as books. Direct access allows one to go directly to the stacks for books or periodicals. (v.) To look up, to consult.

Account number: A 10-digit number assigned by university financial offices to money earmarked for specific uses. For example, the account number for library books is 2-314-230-300. Do not confuse with Fund Code.

Accounts Payable: The university department responsible for processing all invoices for payment. All invoices to be paid from the library budget are submitted to this office for the issuance of checks.

ACF: SEE Academic Computing Facility.

Acquisitions Unit: The administrative unit in Bobst in charge of acquiring books, serials, microforms, videos, etc., and keeping necessary business records. Part of Technical Services Department.

Added copy: An additional item intentionally acquired/cataloged which matches the bibliographic record and holdings location of an existing item in BobCat. Distinct from added location or added volume.

Added entry: SEE Entry.

Added location: An additional item added to a bibliographic record for a new location (i.e. a location not yet represented in the holdings for that edition.

Added volume: An additional item added to a bibliographic record for a multi-part work.

Advance: The automated system used by NYU Libraries to organize and control its library materials, both technical services and public access. It is a product of Geac Computers, Inc. and provides control of the history of any book or serial purchase from ordering to appearance in BobCat and continuing with circulation status and record maintenance.

AFC: SEE Avery Fisher Center.

ALA: SEE American Library Association.

American Library Association: The largest national professional library organization. Publishes professional journals and other publications. Holds two conferences per year: "Annual" in June or July; "Midwinter" in January or February.

Analytic: A cataloging record for a part of an item for which a comprehensive entry is also made.

Analyzed series: Series for which each volume receives its own fully-cataloged record; volumes in the series are classified together.

Anglo-American Authority File: SEE Name Authority File.

Anglo-American cataloguing rules: SEE AACR.

Annotation: Criticism and/or commentary. An annotated bibliography contains descriptive notes about books or articles listed. (e.g. Library journal contains annotations in the form of reviews.)

Annual: Serial published with annual chronological designation; may or may not actually be published once a year. SEE ALSO Serial.

"Annual Conference" (i.e. Annual Conference of American Library Association): SEE American Library Association.

Appointment, Reappointment and Promotion Panel: A standing committee of the Division of Libraries; the members are elected from all four faculty ranks.

Approval plan: Method of acquiring library materials, usually books. The vendor supplies books based on general instructions given from the library. The instructions, or profile, specify the subjects and non-subject parameters (price, country of origin, kinds of publications, readership level, etc.) the library wants to receive. The library keeps the books of which it approves, and returns to the vendor any it disapproves of for any reason.

Archives: A repository for papers. The principal collections at NYU include those related to the university, to labor unions, etc. Located on the 10th floor of Bobst, sharing space with Wagner Archives and Tamiment Library. The University Archives is the designated repository for the official records of New York University.

Audio-visual materials: Non-book materials such as filmstrips, recordings, films, video-tape, etc.

Author: The person chiefly responsible for the creation of the intellectual or artistic content of a work.

Authority record: A record which gives the preferred form of a heading (e.g. personal name, corporate name, subject heading, uniform title) and includes references as appropriate. Geac Advance creates simple authority records as part of its database structure; such system-created records reflect the bibliographic heading and do not include references.

Authority work: The process of determining the form of a name, title, or subject concept that will be used as a heading on a bibliographic record; of determining references needed to that heading; and of determining relationships of the heading to other headings. (Wynar, 1992)

AV materials: SEE Audio-visual materials.

Avery Fisher Center: The major repository for spoken word recordings, videorecordings, films, musical sound recordings, and other audio-visual materials. Located on the second floor of Bobst. Materials are ordered and processed by the Technical Services Department. Also includes and services the equipment for viewing and/or listening to the materials.

B & T: SEE Baker & Taylor.

Baker & Taylor: The principal domestic approval vendor for materials in Bobst (up to early 1996)

Batch mode: Method of processing by computer a large number of items where the transactions are collected for input and then processed by the computer as a single unit. RLG's Diogenes service is done in batch mode: NYU's in-processing records are run against the RLIN database in one batch by machine as opposed to staff manually searching each title one-by-one against the RLIN database.

Bibliographer: Coordinator of selection activities for broad subject areas (humanities, social sciences, science). SEE ALSO Collection development; Collection Services Department; Selector.

Bibliographic entity: An instance of recorded knowledge. A bibliographic entity has two components: the physical, called an item, and the intellectual, called a work.

Bibliographic MARC Cataloguing (BMC): The name in the Advance Cataloguing Module for the menu option giving staff access to the main database. Records may be created in the Workfile but full records for public display and maintenance must be in the BMC.

Bibliographic record: A record for a bibliographic entity, which may be in any format (printed text, computer file, videorecording, musical score, etc.). Used to distinguish such records from item records and authority records.

Bibliographic utilities: Online processing centers that provide a shared database of cataloging records created by member libraries. The databases are used for copy cataloging, interlibrary loan, selection and bibliographic verification. NYU has access to two utilities: OCLC and RLIN.

Bindery: An operation, commercial or in-house, which functions to put hard cover bindings on paperback books and serial publications, replace hard covers for volumes worn out from use or damage, repair damaged volumes, and more. Bobst Library has an in-house bindery operation in the Collection Services Unit which repairs damaged volumes and sends books to a commercial binder, Ocker and Trapp. The Acquisitions Unit sends unbound serials to Ocker and Trapp for binding.

BIP: SEE Books in print.

Blanket order: An order placed with a publisher to supply automatically all publications from that publisher. Sometimes limited by subject. (e.g. NYU Press for all publications except law; National League for Nursing for all publications; ALA for many publications according to a profile).

BMC: SEE Bibliographic MARC Cataloguing

BobCat: The online catalog for NYU Libraries and the Consortium libraries. Includes all cataloging done since 1981, as well as converted records for most of the collection cataloged before 1981.

Bobst Library: The main library for NYU. Includes Fales Library (special collections); Avery Fisher Center (videos, sound recordings, electronic materials, etc.); Tamiment Library (labor history); Wagner Labor Archives. NYU Press and university administration offices are also located in the library building.

Books in print: the author and title indexes to the Publishers' trade list annual. Listings by subject are found in Subject guide to books in print. Also available in electronic form.

Browser (Internet): A software program enabling a user to search for resources on the Internet.

Budget: A plan for the use of money available during a fiscal year. The Director of Collection Services, in collaboration with the library dean and fiscal officer, develop a budget with money allocated to Bobst for the materials budget. The materials budget (used to buy books, serials, videos, etc. for the library collection) is divided among books, serials, and binding. The books and serials budgets are further subdivided into subject categories, from which each selector is given an amount of money with which to choose publications to buy for the collection.

BWC: SEE Workfile.

C-fly: SEE Circulation on the fly.

Cabinet: Policy-making group composed of the Associate Dean and the directors of the administrative units of the NYU Division of Libraries.

Call number: The symbols used to indicate the location of books on the shelves. Most call numbers in Bobst Library are in the Library of Congress classification.

Card catalog: Cabinets of card drawers located on the first floor of Bobst Library which were the main record of cataloging for holdings of NYU Libraries. Now contains only those cards which are not predicted to be online in BobCat.

Cassette: A container for tape or film, e.g. audio cassette, computer magnetic cassette, videocassette.

Cat sep: SEE Cataloged separately.

Cataloged separately: A series in which each volume has its own cataloging record and its own call number.

Cataloging in Publication Project: Cooperative project between the Library of Congress and American publishers, the purpose being to supply advance LC cataloging information which is then printed on the verso of the title page. CIP cataloging copy is usually done pre-publication and all the information is subject to change upon receipt of the item.

Cataloging manual: also known as "the red book"; includes policy statements and procedures. It is continually updated and is expected to be on the NYU library homepage.

CBI: SEE Cumulative book index.

Center for Research Libraries: Cooperative organization of research institutions where members may deposit little-used publications. The Center also acquires some esoteric materials to lend to constituents. Located in Chicago.

Central processing unit (CPU): The electronic part of a computer which allows it to run programs by itself. A terminal without a CPU is only capable of running the program to which it is devoted.

CIP Project: SEE Cataloging in Publication Project.

Circ on the fly: SEE Circulation on the fly.

Circulation: Activity centered in Access Department and reserve desks. 1. The lending of books (or other materials) to borrowers and the keeping of records of loans. 2. The total number of volumes lent during a given period of use outside the library.

Circulation on the fly (COTF; C-fly): Very brief records created by Access Services staff at the point of circulation; materials are allowed to circulate without a full bibliographic record being attached to the circulation record. An on-going cataloging project is the replacement of COTF records with fully-cataloged records.

Citation: A note of reference to a work from which a passage is quoted, or to some source of authority for a statement.

Claim: A request sent to a supplier or publisher to send an item which was ordered but has not yet been received even after a sufficient waiting period.

Classed, classified, classification: The arrangement of materials by subject, number, size or any specified criteria for locating material in any particular order. LC classification is by subject. Some non-print materials are arranged by consecutive number. Dissertations are all arranged in LD3907. SEE ALSO Library of Congress classification and cataloging.

Closed stacks: SEE Stacks.

Code 100: Personnel coding for administrative staff, non-faculty.

Collate: Bring together or assemble. Also, to examine a book or newspaper page by page to see that the pages, plates, etc. are in proper order and complete.

Collation: In cataloging, the physical description of a bibliographic item (book, tape, film) which generally appears after the imprint.

Collection development: The process of examining the academic and research needs, and selecting materials in support of those needs, for both faculty and students.

Collection Services Department: The department within the library responsible for selection of materials. Includes selectors, bibliographers, preservation staff, and access services.

Comes with subscription: A serial title which is received as part of a subscription to another title. The "comes with" serial is received on its own bibliographic record, but payment information is posted on the main title (parent) order record.

Command: (computers) A signal to initiate a predetermined type of computer operation.

Compiler: 1. One who produces a collection by selecting and putting together matter from the works of various persons or bodies. 2. One who selects and puts together in one publication matter from the works of one person or body. SEE ALSO Editor.

Computer: An electronic instrument which can solve problems by accepting data, performing various operations with the data, and supplying results. May be a personal computer or terminal, may be connected to a network, may provide access to the Internet.

Computer file: A body of encoded information (either data or program, or both) that can be read only by a computer.

CONSER (CONversion of SERials Project): A cooperative effort to build a core data base of bibliographic information on serial titles to be available for use on the international, national, regional and local levels.

Consortia (consortium): Formal organizations of two or more institutions which seek to attain specific goals through cooperation. (e.g. RLG, METRO)

"The Consortium": Officially the Research Library Association of South Manhattan. Membership includes NYU, Cooper Union, New School for Social Research (including Parsons School of Design and Mannes College of Music), etc. cataloging for Cooper, New School, and Parsons is done in TSD; acquisitions is also done for some New School materials. Records for these institutions appear in BobCat.

Continuation: SEE Standing order.

Conventional title: SEE Uniform title.

Conversion of Serials Project: SEE CONSER.

Cooper Union: One of the academic institutions in the Consortium. Located around Astor Place.

"Copy cataloguing": In Advance, creates a new record based on an existing record. Similar to "new" command in OCLC or "cre *" in RLIN.

Copyright: [ c in a circle] The exclusive rights to publication, production or sale of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work as authorized by the U.S Constitution and subsequent legislation.

Core bibliographic record: Record following standards developed by the Program for Cooperative Cataloging; core standards exist for books, Music and non-music sound recordings, Printed music and music manuscripts, CONSER, JACKPHY (non-roman languages) and Audiovisual materials. Generally includes essential descriptive elements and access points. All relevant access points are represented by national-level authority records.

Corporate entry: A catalog or index entry under the name of an organization or institution, rather than under an individual name.

COTF: SEE Circulation on the fly.

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences Library: One of the branch libraries in the NYU Libraries system. Cataloging is done in TSD.

CPU: SEE Central processing unit.

CRL: SEE Center for Research Libraries.

Cross reference: A referral in a catalog or index from one heading to another. Also called a "reference" and "see-from" reference, or a "use for."

Cumulative book index: An index of books published in the English language. Usually cumulated annually. An H.W. Wilson Company publication.

Cutter number: An alphanumeric scheme for indication of the author or main entry following the classification number. It is a filing device to alphabetize or arrange main entries within a given classification number.

Data: 1. (Computer application) Alpha and numeric characters which are processed by a computer. 2. (General use) Facts or information gathered for a specific purpose.

Data processing: Manipulation of data according to prescribed rules to obtain answers to specific questions.

Database: A collection of data stored in a computer system in such a way that it may be retrieved by different means to form compilations for various purposes.

Debug: Detect, locate and correct errors or problems in a computer program or malfunctions of a computer.

Department and Unit Heads (DUH): Group composed of library directors, unit heads, and key administrative staff that meets bimonthly (except summer). Functions for information sharing more than policymaking.

Deposit account: Library deposits a sum of money with publisher or vendor in order to achieve financial savings by earning discount or bonus from vendor, or because the publisher requires a deposit prior to supplying materials.

Depository: Library agrees to be repository for materials to which public access is granted. NYU is depository for U.S. federal documents and U.N. documents. SEE ALSO Regional depository.

Descriptor: A subject heading (word or phrase) applied to a database record.

Deteriorated replacement: An item which replaces another which has become unusable and will be withdrawn from the collection; may or may not be the same edition and may or may not be in the same format. Order Type (Advance) = DRPL.

Dictionary catalog: A catalog arrangement in which all entries (authors, subjects, and titles) are interfiled into one general alphabet. BobCat searches can be interfiled (i.e. all=) or of one sort of entry (e.g. a=, s=, t=)

Diogenes: A service provided by RLG and Retro Link Associates whereby a library's machine-readable in-processing records are searched against the RLIN database in batch mode. Those records which match the profile are returned to the library for processing in the local system.

Disaster plan workbook: A loose-leaf guide to handling emergency situations within Bobst. This manual was developed by the Preservation Unit and will be kept up to date. There is at least one copy in each department.

Discharging: Canceling the loan record upon return of a book or other material lent.

Division of Libraries: Administrative unit of NYU under the Dean of Libraries; includes Bobst, Institute of Fine Arts, Courant, and Real Estate Institute (REI).

Document: Contains recorded information on any physical form - paper, film, etc. Thus, a book is a document, as is a periodical article, a microfilm, etc. SEE ALSO Bibliographic entity; Government document; Item; Work.

DRPL: SEE Deteriorated replacement.

DUH: SEE Department and Unit Heads.

Dup.: Duplicate.

ECR: SEE Expenditure control reports.

Edition: All copies of a book printed at any time from the same setting of type. Includes impressions, issues, and printings. According to Gaskill, a book reissued with less than half of the type being reset would be called another impression or issue. (P. Gaskill, A new introduction to bibliography. Oxford U.P., 1972.)

Editor: One who prepares for publication an item not his or her own. The editorial work may be limited to preparation of the item for the manufacturer, or it may include supervision of the manufacturing, revision, or elucidation of the content of the item, and the addition of an introduction, notes, and other critical matter. In some cases, it may involve the technical direction of a staff of persons engaged in creating or compiling the content of the item. SEE ALSO Compiler.

Eights: Job grade of most acquisitions staff and of copy cataloging assistants. In cataloging, Eights select and process member copy and perform complex catalog maintenance.

Electronic resources: A computer file or files which is accessible to library users or staff. May be located physically at NYU; may be available via modem or Internet.

Electronic Resources Center: Located on Bobst B-Level. Provides access to databases, electronic texts, Internet, and software applications; also has classroom facilities.

Electronic Text Center: Provides research access to a selection of electronic texts and databases; also provides tools for the creation and markup of texts and images.

Electrostatic printing: SEE Xerography.

Elmer Holmes Bobst Library: SEE Bobst Library

Elmer: Nickname for computer servers through which most Bobst PCs have access to ADVANCE, Pegasus mail, word processing, spreadsheets, the Internet, etc. Elmer4 is the current Windows server (implemented 1997-1998). Elmer1 was the DOS server.

End papers: A folded sheet of paper in a book, plain or printed, having one leaf that forms a pastedown and another that forms a fly leaf. Also called endleaf, endsheet.

Entry: A heading in a catalog, index, or database under which a record of a book, serial article, etc. is located. Each cataloged book, serial, etc. has entries in BobCat; entries for serial articles are found primarily in periodical indexes, not in BobCat. A main entry is the entry under which an item is cataloged, and may be an individual author, a corporate body, or a title. Added entries are additional entries under which an item may be found, such as joint authors or editors, title, or series. Subject entries locate an item by subject. An analytic entry is for a part of a larger work, such as an article in a collection or anthology. A series entry is under the series heading.

ERC: SEE Electronic Resources Center.

Eureka: Patron interface to RLIN; available at many locations in Bobst.

Expenditure control report: A monthly financial report issued by the Controllers Division for each department or project on the University's budget. In Acquisitions, it is used to monitor the expenditure of money from each account in the materials budget.

Export (OCLC command): SEE XPO.

Faculty meeting: The bimonthly meeting of the faculty librarians at NYU.

Fales Library: The special collections department for NYU Libraries, located on the third floor of Bobst. Specializes in English and American literature.

Fascicle: One of the temporary divisions of a printed item that, for convenience in printing or publication, is issued in small installments, usually incomplete in themselves; they do not necessarily coincide with any formal division of the work into parts, etc. Usually the fascicle is protected by temporary paper wrappers. It may or may not be numbered. A fascicle is distinguished from a part by being a temporary division rather than a formal component unit.

FastCat: The cataloging workflow with copy provided by the Library of Congress and loaded into the main database (BMC). LC copy is assumed to be of high quality and no significant editing of the bibliographic entity is required. The cataloging thereby goes quickly; hence the "fast" in FastCat.

Fields: Distinct parts of a database record, such as title, author, or subject.

File transfer protocol (FTP): Method used for transferring electronic files from one computer to another, e.g., MARC cataloging from Casalini's computer to Bobst's Advance computer, or from RLIN to Advance, or from Advance to RLIN.

Filing title: SEE Uniform title.

Fine Arts Library: SEE Institute of Fine Arts. Art materials are also found in Bobst Library, Cooper Union, Parsons School of Design, and at the Grey Art Gallery. The gallery library is not represented in BobCat and is principally for departmental use.

Firm order: A request for a book, video, etc. made by mailing, faxing, or phoning a purchase order to a publisher or vendor. Unlike approval books, money is encumbered for these orders and the materials cannot normally be returned unless defective or damaged.

Fiscal year: A "Budget" year which begins on a given day of a month, and ends the previous day of the following year. The NYU fiscal year begins September 1 and ends August 31. New School's fiscal year begins July 1 and ends June 30 of the following year.

Folio: A book made of large sheets of paper folded once. Thus folio size is usually large, depending upon the original size of the paper.

Foreign Acquisitions Program (Formerly PL 480): A cooperative foreign acquisitions program which is dollar funded for the Library of Congress and other participants, including NYU. Materials are received in Bobst from the following programs: Middle East Cooperative Acquisitions Program in Cairo for Arab world serials; FAP/Islamabad for Iranian monographic and serial imprints; Brazilian serial(s) from the Rio office.

FTP: SEE File transfer protocol.

Fund code: Alphabetic codes set up in Advance for purposes of allocating and reporting budget expenditures by subject. Sometimes there is a one-to-one correspondence between a fund code and an account number; in other cases, there are numerous fund codes for one account number. Example: B-B-H-ART.

Further search: The process of searching the bibliographic utilities (OCLC and/or RLIN) for fuller cataloging copy for an item, principally refers to the searching done by cataloging staff of newly-received materials.

GBA: SEE Stern School of Business (formerly Graduate School of Business Administration).

Geac: The company which developed and maintains Advance, the system used by NYU Libraries. Earlier versions of Geac software were called GLIS, Geac 8000, Geac 9000, etc.

GLIS: Geac Library Information System; used at NYU for circulation, OPAC, serials and maintenance before Advance.

Government documents: Monographs, serial publications, reports, communications; any official publication of a governmental agency on any level.

Government Printing Office: The official printing arm of the U.S. government.

GPO: SEE Government Printing Office.

Grade 7 staff: SEE Sevens.

Grade 8 staff: SEE Eights.

Graduate School of Business Administration: SEE Stern School of Business.

Half-FastCat: The cataloging workflow with LC copy provided by Yankee Book Peddler and loaded into the Workfile rather than the main database (BMC). The LC record must be moved from the Workfile and the data merged with the acquisitions record in the BMC. SEE ALSO FastCat.

Hard copy: Usually paper copy which does not require magnification or a computer in order to be read.

Hard cover: A cloth or buckram bound volume.

Hardware: The mechanical and electronic aspects of a computer. Compare with software, the programs that run the computer.

"The Hold": The cataloging backlog. Non-priority items are housed in LCN order. Any item with copy or for a priority location or with a requestor is not placed in the Hold. Some items (currently red-flagged) have adequate copy but no usable call number.

Holdings: The record of the number of copies and locations for library materials. Data is entered on Item Update Screen in Advance and displayed in BobCat.

Holdings screen: SEE Item record.

Homepage: An Internet location or site, maintained by an organization, business, or individual, which provides a central starting point for relevant information. Generally includes links to offerings on the same site or other sites, without the need to use other addresses or search engines.

ILL: SEE Interlibrary loan.

Imprint: Place of publication, publisher and date of publication.

"In processing": Item status used in the BobCat display for items which have been ordered and received, but which are not yet cataloged. Item update screen usually has a more specific status.

Information Desk ("Info Desk"): Located in catalog area on first floor of Bobst.

Information retrieval: SEE Retrieval.

Insourcing: SEE Outsourcing.

Institute of Fine Arts Library: Graduate research library (Stephen Chan Library of Fine Arts) in art history and conservation; located on 78th Street at Fifth Avenue. Part of the NYU Division of Libraries. Cataloging is done in TSD.

Interactive multimedia: A work residing in one or more physical carriers (videodiscs, computer disks, computer optical discs, compact discs, etc.) or on computer networks. Must exhibit both 1) user-controlled, nonlinear navigation using computer technology, and 2) combination of two or more media (audio, text, graphics, images, animation, and video) manipulated by user to control the order and/or nature of presentation.

Interlibrary loan: A service for obtaining monographic or serial material not held in the local library. The Bobst ILL office is located on the first floor.

International Standard Book Number (ISBN): A number which identifies one title or edition of a title, from one specific publisher, and is unique to that title or edition. Includes four units: country/language code; publisher number; book number; and check digit. Valid ISBNs have ten digits; check digit may be "X."

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): An internationally-accepted code which uniquely identifies a serial publication. Consists of eight digits divided in the middle by a hyphen. Assigned by the various International Serial Data Centers

Internet: The world-wide "network of networks" connecting government, academic, and commercial agencies (e.g. NSFNET, WestNet, America Online) using the Internet protocol (IP). Each network consists of linked computers which are, in turn, linked to other networks which connect multiple computers. Each host can have its own look and feel; when connected to a remote host, you must use the conventions of the remote host. The term "internet" is also more broadly used to designate any set of interconnected, logically-independent networks. Services available include: remote login, telnet, e-mail, FTP, news, bulletin boards. The Academic Computing Facility maintains the NYUnet which is connected to our Internet provider NYSERnet (New York Systems Education Research).

ISBN: SEE International Standard Book Number.

ISSN: SEE International Standard Serial Number.

Item: A physical object, such as a book or a sound recording, as distinct from the intellectual entity, or work, it contains.

Item record: Also called the "piece(s) record" or "holdings screen." Contains information, such as location and barcode, that relates principally to the item, as opposed to the bibliographic record, which contains information relating to the work.

Journal: A periodical or record on a specialized topic often issued by a professional publisher or society for a limited audience.

Kardex: Before the development of computerized check-in records, metal Kardex cabinets held cards for recording the receipt, payment, and claims for serial and standing order titles. The serials kardex is totally converted to Advance. The standing order kardex is mostly converted to Advance. (N.B. "Kardex" was the trade name of the original equipment.)

LAN: SEE Local area network.

Law Library: The NYU law library is located at 40 Washington Square South. Administered separately from Bobst Library, including technical services.

LC: SEE Library of Congress; and terms beginning with LC ...

LC cataloging: Cataloging copy created or edited by LC and distributed to OCLC, RLIN, etc.; considered the most authoritative cataloging source.

LC Copy Cataloging Unit: The unit in the Technical Services Department responsible for completing the cataloging of items with LC copy; also responsible for routine catalog maintenance and book labelling, etc.; consists primarily of Grade 7 staff.

LCCN: Library of Congress card number (term still used even though cards are not generally being produced).

LCN: SEE Local control number.

Leaf: One sheet of paper plain or printed on one side only. SEE ALSO Page.

LI: SEE Library identifier.

Library Council: Consists of six elected library faculty, Council is concerned with all matters relating to the welfare and responsibilities of Bobst library faculty. Organizes continuing education programs for library faculty.

Library identifier (LI): The institutional code in RLIN; usually starts with abbreviation for state followed by institutional mnemonic (e.g. NYU is NYUG; Columbia is NYCG; Cornell is NYCX; Yale is CTYG; Berkeley is CUBG); an institution may have more than one LI.

Library of Congress: The unofficial national library of the U.S., producing cataloging records and other products used in technical services, etc.

Library of Congress classification: The alphanumeric system developed by the Library of Congress for its own collections. The alphabetic symbols denote broad, general subject areas, while the numerals which follow indicate facets within a subject. (e.g. D - History. DC - French history. DC 141 - French history, Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, 1789-1815 - Sources and documents.

Local area network (LAN): A data communications system linking workstations within a restricted goegraphical area and allowing the sharing of information and resources. The Bobst LAN is Ethernet and it was first installed in 1983. The layout is essentially a string of PCs connected along a segment via blue cables.

Local Control Number (LCN): Unique number assigned sequentially by Advance to each record; each database (e.g. Workfile, BMC, Authorities) has its own sequence.

Main entry: Officially, the main catalog record of an item, presented in the form by which the entity is to be uniformly identified and cited (per AACR2). Colloquially refers to the access point (e.g. personal author, corporate author, title, uniform title) that appears at the top of a full AACR2 record. SEE ALSO Entry.

Machine-readable: Information encoded in a form which can be read by a machine, usually means computer-readable.

MAchine-Readable Cataloging: SEE MARC.

Mannes College of Music: Part of the New School since 1989; cataloging and acquisitions are done at Mannes; cataloging records are present in BobCat.

Mansell: The publisher of the NUC pre-1956 imprints. This particular set of NUCs is often referred to by the publisher's name.

MARC: MAchine-Readable Cataloging. Machine-readable records of cataloging done by the Library of Congress and sold on subscription, as well as records done by others. MARC records are distributed on tape and by FTP and are constantly being added to RLIN, OCLC, and other databases. Each MARC implementation (e.g. OCLC MARC, RLIN MARC, MARC in Advance) varies slightly from USMARC.

Membership: As used in Acquisitions, a method of acquiring materials (usually books and serials) whereby the library pays an institutional membership fee in order to get an organization's publications.

METRO: A consortium of over 300 academic, public and research libraries in the New York City metropolitan area; services include reciprocal on-site access, interlibrary loan, cooperative purchase of materials, and workshops and classes.

Microform: An item which contains images which cannot be read without a machine which magnifies. Images are usually on 35 mm. film or fiche, but may also be on 16 mm. film or opaque cards. Microfiche and microcards often contain a title which can be read without magnification.

Middle East Cooperative Acquisitions Program (MECAP): Cooperative program based in Cairo and coordinated by Middle East Librarian through which NYU receives its Arab world serials.

Midwinter: One of the semi-annual conferences of the American Library Association.

Missing replacement: An item which replaces another which has been declared missing and which is not expected to be recovered; may or may not be the same edition and may or may not be in the same format. Order Type (Advance) = MRPL.

Monograph: A treatise published singly on one subject. Generally a book. May be in more than one volume and may be in a non-book format. According to AACR2, "a nonserial item (i.e., an item either complete in one part or complete, or intended to be completed, in a finite number of separate parts."

Monographic series: SEE Series.

MRDF: Machine-Readable Data Files.

MRPL: SEE Missing replacement.

Multimedia item: An item containing two or more categories of material, no one of which is identifiable as the predominant constituent of the item.

Music Library: Music collections in Bobst are distributed between the stacks and Avery Fisher Center. The general music collection is located on the second floor. Music Reference is in the lounge of the 2nd floor. There are also music reference books in REF1. Certain other reference materials (e.g. oversize program booklets for CDs, collection development resources) are located in Avery Fisher reference. Music reserves and current music periodicals are also located in Avery Fisher reference.

NACO: Cooperative program for the creation of name authority records in the authority file maintained at LC; part of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging.

NAF: SEE Name Authority File.

NAL: National Agricultural Library.

Name Authority File (NAF): Contains authority records for persons, corporate bodies, places, uniform titles, series, etc. based on common procedures and maintained by LC. Also becoming known as the Anglo-American Authority File (AAAF).

National bibliography: A catalog of books current or retrospective which attempts to list the complete publishing output of any one country. The national bibliography for the United States has been the National Union Catalog.

National Cooperative Cataloging Program (NCCP): SEE Program for Cooperative Cataloging.

National Union Catalog (NUC): A card catalog located in the Library of Congress showing the reported holdings from hundreds of libraries in United States and Canada. NUC was periodically issued in book form for various time periods. The primary cumulation of NUC covers imprints from ca. 1898 (and earlier) to 1955 (also called Mansell or NUC pre-1956). NUC's function has been largely overtaken by OCLC, RLIN and remote-access to library catalogs. The library codes used in NUC are widely used to refer to libraries; the code is usually mnemonic with state-city-institution (e.g. NNU for New York University; NN for New York Public Library; NIC for Cornell; CtY for Yale; MH for Harvard; DLC for the Library of Congress; CaQMCCA for Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Quebec).

NCCP: SEE Program for Cooperative Cataloging (formerly National Cooperative Cataloging Program).

Netscape: A widely-available navigation software for the World-wide Web.

Networking: (Libraries) A plan of communication between two or more libraries to accomplish certain established goals (e.g. interlibrary loan, cooperative cataloging). Method of communication may be teletype, computer generated, telephone, mail, messenger, etc. Networks are often between consortium members, e.g. OCLC, RLG, the Consortium.

New or revised edition: An edition containing substantial revision from the original text. Also used when more than half of the type has been reset. SEE ALSO Edition and Reprint.

New School for Social Research: One of the libraries in the Consortium, located around Fifth Avenue and 13th Street. Parent institution for Parsons School of Design and Mannes College of Music.

New serial titles (NST): An update and continuation of the Union list of serials.

New York Technical Services Librarians: A group of metropolitan area librarians; meets twice a year (May and December) and holds a spring reception.

NLM: National Library of Medicine.

Non-book materials: SEE Non-print media.

Non-print media: Communication in a form other than books, periodicals or the printed word. Included are films, audio-visual tapes, television, sound recordings, slides, computer files, interactive multimedia, etc.

NST: SEE New serial titles.

NUC: SEE National Union Catalog.

NUC codes: Library identifiers used in National Union Catalog.

NUC pre-1956: SEE National Union Catalog, and Mansell.

NYLA (pronounced "Nila") New York Library Association. The professional library association for New York State librarians.

NYPL: New York (City) Public Library.

NYSILL: New York State Interlibrary Loan. State network centered in the State Library at Albany to serve all libraries in the state by lending books or photoduplicating serial articles not held in the collection of the requesting library or in any of the requester's consortium partners.

NYTSL: SEE New York Technical Services Librarians.

NYUG: The RLIN code (library identifier) for NYU and the Consortium (not the law and medical libraries).

OCLC: Online Computer Library Center (earlier name: Ohio College Library Center). A library processing center which has a database built on the holdings of its constituent libraries, using MARC records (and other services). Cataloging is accomplished online or via downloading. Also acts as a union catalog by giving locations of libraries holding any given title.

Octavo: A sheet folded (in half) three times to form a section of eight leaves or sixteen pages.

Offline: An operation or device that is not in direct communication with the computer. In an offline mode, human intervention is necessary between data entry and ultimate processing. Also used informally to describe work not dependent on direct access to Advance. SEE ALSO Online.

Ohio College Library Center: SEE OCLC.

Online: An operation or device that is in direct communication with the computer. SEE ALSO Offline.

Online Computer Library Center: SEE OCLC.

Online resource: An electronic resource located on a remote computer and searched over the Internet or via modem.

OPAC: Online public access catalog. BobCat is the OPAC for NYU and the Consortium (except law and medical libraries).

Original Cataloging Unit: The unit in the Technical Services Department responsible for original cataloging, for complex copy cataloging, and complex maintenance; consists of faculty librarians.

Outsourcing: The use of a vendor, etc. to perform a task, rather than doing the task inhouse. Examples: shelf-ready books (acquired, cataloged, and processed) from Yankee Book Peddler; backlog searching via Diogenes. Some libraries are taking in technical services work and informally call it "insourcing."

Page: One side of a leaf; a sheet of paper which is printed on both sides. (One leaf = 2 pages.)

Pagination: A description of page numbering in a book.

Paging: (Page, a library assistant) The act of an assistant ("page") who carries books (or other material) to and from the stacks upon request. For bibliographic paging, SEE Pagination.

Pamphlet: A small printed item, usually a monograph.

Parsons School of Design: One of the libraries in the Consortium, part of New School for Social Research. Located at Fifth Avenue and 13th Street.

PC: SEE Personal computer.

PCC: SEE Program for Cooperative Cataloging.

Perfect binding: Folded section of volume (SEE Signature) is cut, the loose sheets then being coated with a strong, but flexible adhesive.

Periodical: A serial publication intended to appear at regular intervals indefinitely. Usually contains separate articles or other writings. A periodical is a serial, but all serials are not periodicals.

Periodical index: A subject, sometimes also author and title index to a group of periodicals. (e.g. Readers' guide to periodical literature)

Personal computer: A computer with a CPU capable of running software and connecting to networks. SEE ALSO Terminal.

Photoduplication: Various printing and reprographic methods used for quick duplication, e.g. Xerography, Olivettiography, offset lithography, microfilm, photostat.

Pieces record: SEE Item record.

P.L. 480: SEE Foreign Acquisitions Program.

Pre-1956 NUC: SEE National Union Catalog.

Press (shelving): SEE Section.

Printer: The individual or firm which actually prints material. A printer is sometimes, but not always, the publisher.

Priority books: Expedited processing is given to items for Consortium libraries, reference centers within Bobst, branch libraries, items requested by a user, etc. Non-priority items without cataloging copy are placed in the Hold.

Profile: SEE Approval plan.

Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC): An international cooperative effort aimed at expanding access to library collections by providing useful, timely, and cost-effective cataloging that meets mutually-accepted standards around the world. Coordinated jointly by the Library of Congress and PCC participants; major programs include NACO, SACO, BIBCO. Earlier known as National Coordinated Cataloging Program or National Cooperative Cataloging Program, etc., NCCP.

Progressions: The newsletter of the NYU Division of Libraries.

Promotion and Tenure Committee: SEE Appointment, Reappointment and Promotion Panel.

P-slip: A plain piece of paper the size of a catalog card, sometimes with punched hole for use in a catalog drawer.

PTLA: SEE Publishers' trade list annual.

Public catalog: SEE Card catalog.

Publication date: The date a book was actually published. This date sometimes varies from the copyright date.

Publisher: The individual, corporation, society, etc. responsible for the underwriting, editing, printing, and distribution of a work. SEE ALSO Printer.

Publishers' trade list annual: A compilation of current publishers' catalogs. Authors, titles and subjects are indexed in the various volumes of Books in print (BIP).

PUT: The command used in RLIN to request the transfer via FTP of a record from RLIN to Advance. The "put" record is filed in the Advance Workfile.

Range: Double-sided shelving or bookcase of not less than four tiers. SEE ALSO Section (shelving).

Reader cards: Library use cards issued to certain readers outside of the NYU community.

Ready reference: Reference books other than abstracts, bibliographies, or indexes used for quick information requiring a single, simple answer.

Recon: (REtrospective CONversion) The conversion of cataloging records from cards to MARC. Unconverted items are represented by cards in the shelf list and/or card catalog.

Recto: The right hand page of a book or the front of a single sheet. A single page title page is usually on the recto. SEE ALSO Verso.

REF1: Reference service center on first floor of Bobst; principally for general reference and humanities.

REF6: Reference service center on sixth floor of Bobst; principally for social sciences, business, and government documents.

REF9: Reference service center on ninth floor of Bobst; principally for physical and natural sciences.

Reference: 1. A direction from one heading to another (also called cross or x-reference, or see or see also, or use for). 2. A note referring to another document or passage.

Reference service: The aid given by a librarian or surrogate, to a reader or library user to find information. The extent and level of service given varies according to the question and its complexity.

Referral form: Form used for Cataloging staff to alert Acquisitions staff that the electronic link between the order record and the cataloging record in Advance was broken for some reason. Cataloging staff refer the LCN of the cataloged record to Acquisitions staff, who key the LCN into the order record to artificially re-establish the link between the ordering data and the cataloged data, for auditing purposes.

Regional depository: Libraries designated by the Superintendent of Documents to accept and permanently keep a complete collection of publications, thus making it unnecessary for other depositories to retain their documents after five years. NYU is a U.S. Federal Depository Library. Some federal publications are cataloged and added to the collection at NYU; other documents are available on microprint.

Remote access: Communicating with a database or other electronic resource which is not physically present on the computer or local area network.

"Replace": The command in Advance which replaces one bibliographic record with another, customarily used to bring together a fuller bibliographic record with a minimal-level acquisitions record. The replaced record retains the LCN of the acquisitions record.

Reprint: A new printing of a book. Can also be an edition in cheaper form than the original, e.g., paperback editions which follow hard cover editions.

Reprography: SEE Photoduplication.

Research Libraries Group: (RLG) A consortium originally consisting of New York Public Library Research Collections, Harvard, Yale and Columbia University Libraries; now includes more than 150 libraries in North America and Europe. Areas of cooperation: coordinated acquisitions of esoteric materials little used in any one library; cooperative cataloging using the RLIN database; and interlibrary loan.

Research Libraries Information Network: SEE RLIN.

Research Library Association of South Manhattan: SEE "The Consortium."

Reserve desk: Service center on A-Level of Bobst where materials are placed on reserve by the faculty for special courses.

Retrieval: The act of locating a document. Information retrieval: the act of manually or electronically locating information. Finding a wanted book in the stacks is information retrieval as is a computer printout of abstracts on any given subject.

Retrospective conversion: SEE Recon.

Returns: Items sent back or returned to a supplier for credit or replacement because they are defective, damaged, duplicate, etc.

RLG: SEE Research Libraries Group.

RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network): Bibliographic utility operated by RLG.

RLIN library identifier: SEE Library identifier.

Romanization: The transliteration of letters into the roman script. SEE Transliteration.

Search engine (Internet): A software program enabling a user to find resources on the Internet. May include various indexes.

Section (shelving): A single side of shelves with more than two tiers, placed end to end. When double-sided, called a range.

"See" references: See in addition to ...

Selector: Staff entrusted with selecting library materials in a particular subject area; selectors work with bibliographers in the development of the library collections. SEE ALSO Bibliographer; Collection development; Collection Services Department.

Serial: A publication issued in successive parts bearing numerical or chronological designations. Intended to be continued indefinitely. Included are periodicals, newspapers, annuals, proceedings, transactions, monographic series, etc.

Serial holdings: Holdings for serial titles are given in Advance and displayed for the public in BobCat. There is no separate listing of periodicals and other serials for the public. There is a list of periodicals housed in the Current Periodicals section of Bobst A-Level. SEE ALSO Holdings.

Series: Separate publications on a specific subject having a collective title (serial), in addition to the individual titles (monographic). Series usually have a uniform physical format and are usually issued by the same publisher, and may or may not be numbered. Analyzed means that each part of the series has its own bibliographic record. If it is analyzed but not classified together, it is referred to as "cataloged separately" or "cat sep." Unanalyzed means that there is only a record for the series and not for the individual parts. There will be a series added entry in BobCat for each issue in an analyzed or "cat sep" series. A series or serial may also be partially analyzed, with records for only selected numbers in the series or serial.

Sevens: Job grade of junior copy cataloging assistants. Sevens process LC copy and perform straightforward catalog maintenance.

Shared Copy Cataloging Unit: The unit in Technical Services Department responsible for completion of cataloging based on copy from sources other than LC; consists primarily of Grade 8 staff.

Shelf list: Catalog entries arranged by classification number - as books and other materials are arranged on the shelves.

Signature: (book binding) A printed folded sheet forming part of a volume. The signatures collected in order, are then placed together and sewed before the book is completely bound.

Software: The programs written by the user or computer manufacturer that control the operation of the computer.

Spine: The covering on the bound edge of a volume.

Stacks: The space equipped with shelving for the storage of books on one or more floors. (Also called "stack levels".) SEE ALSO Range and Section. Open stacks: public allowed free access. Closed stacks: Access to stacks limited to certain individuals or group of individuals, or only to staff.

Standing order: An order the library places to receive all parts of a multi-part work as volumes are published, such as multi-volume works, monographic series, etc. until a publisher or dealer is notified to cancel or work is complete [bj]. Also called a continuation. SEE ALSO Subscription.

Stern School of Business: The business school at NYU, formerly called the Graduate School of Business Administration and located in the Wall Street area. Stern library materials were incorporated into the Bobst collections in summer 1992.

Subject entries: SEE under Entry.

Subscription: An order the library places to receive all parts of a serial as they are published. Subscriptions must be paid in advance before the supplier will ship the material. SEE ALSO Standing order.

SUNY: State University of New York. Statewide system of publicly supported colleges and universities.

Support(ing) staff: Library staff other than academic or administrative staff.

Surrogate: A substitute: A surrogate or substitute for a document could be an abstract of its contents. Also photocopied information needed for cataloging rather than the original document.

Technical services: The non-public library services which include the acquisition, cataloging, record keeping and physical preparation of material which take place before a volume (or other item)) is ready to circulate.

Terminal: In general, the equipment on one end of a circuit which can send and receive messages. It does not contain its own CPU and is therefore not capable of performing tasks other than the particularly assigned task. SEE ALSO Personal computer.

Title: A unique bibliographic unit which can refer to a monograph of one or more volumes, or a serial.

Tracing: Term used for added entries on a catalog record. Originally applied to the production of catalog cards but term retained into automated environment. SEE ALSO Entry.

Transliteration: The representation of characters or words of one language by corresponding characters of words of another language. The usual practice is to romanize, that is, to transliterate into roman characters. Books in Cyrillic and East Asian scripts are cataloged in BobCat in romanized form. Books in Semitic scripts are cataloged in RLIN in vernacular form and the romanized portions are loaded into Advance.

Truncation: Cutting a search term at its root to retrieve words with different endings. For example, architect# would lead to architect, architects, architecture, architectural ... Truncation may be implicit in a system (Advance uses implicit truncation in phrase searching). The truncation symbol varies from system to system (RLIN uses #).

TSD: Technical Services Department.

ULS: SEE Union List of Serials.

Unanalyzed series: A series with only a bibliographic record for the series and not for individual numbers in the series. SEE ALSO Series.

Uniform title: The object of the uniform title is to be able to file all forms of a work together in the catalog in spite of its various titles, translations, and forms. 1. Literature: Usually the original title of a work in the original language. The title is further divided by parts and language of the text, if different from the original language. 2. Music: Usually the original title of a work or a standard form formulated for works with generic titles such as symphonies, concertos, sonatas, etc. Further divided by score. Uniform titles are used mostly for prolific classical authors, composers and anonymous works. Also called conventional title and filing title.

Union catalog: A catalog showing the holdings of a given group of libraries. BobCat includes holdings for Bobst, IFA, Courant, Cooper Union, New School, Parsons, and the New York Academy of Art, among other libraries. The National Union Catalog shows holdings from hundreds of libraries nationwide. OCLC and RLIN have records and holdings from thousands of institutions.

Union list of serials (ULS): The union list of serials in libraries in the United States and Canada. A list of serials with basic information and a list of libraries which have reported as holding any given serial title. Updated by New serial titles.

University of the State of New York: Previously known as the New York State Education Department. SUNY (State University of New York) is administratively part of the University of the State of New York.

USBE: (formerly Universal Serials and Book Exchange, Inc. and the United States Book Exchange) Clearinghouse of publications; accepting, holding and distributing publications from various libraries.

USMARC: SEE MARC.

Vendor: "Middle man" distributor through which the library obtains books, serials, etc. instead of dealing with publisher directly. Vendors facilitate the acquisitions process by allowing the library to consolidate orders, receipts, invoices, and customer service.

Verification: Establishment of an accurate bibliographic citation in a standard source of reference.

Vernacular script: Scripts other than roman, e.g. Arabic, Chinese, cyrillic, Hebrew, Japanese.

Verso: The left hand page of a book, or the back of a single sheet. The back of a title page. (SEE ALSO Recto).

"The Web": SEE World Wide Web.

Work: An intellectual entity contained in an item; the content of a bibliographic entity.

Workfile: A file of bibliographic records in the Advance database, without items, which contains records waiting to be made into full-level cataloging records in the main database. May vary from minimal vendor records to full copy loaded from an external resource (e.g. RLIN, OCLC) to records in progress. In the Advance Cataloguing Module, the Workfile is called the Bibliographic Workfile Cataloguing or BWC.

World Wide Web (WWW): Officially "a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents," WWW tries to present a consistent interface for using a variety of media in a simplified fashion. Mosaic is a graphically-oriented Web browser which allows for seamless presentation of sound, media, and hypertext. Lynx is a text browser which allows computers running a VT100 terminal emulation to gain access to text portions of WWW resources, with hypertext links indicated. SEE ALSO Internet.

WWW: SEE World Wide Web.

Xerography: Electrostatic printing process which uses dry resin powder and heat for fusing images on paper. Other types of electrostatic printing such as Olivetti and 3-M use toners in solution to create images on special coated paper.

XPO: The command in OCLC to export a record to Advance. Records from Elmer are exported directly to Advance. From the Further Search process on dedicated terminals, the records are currently loaded onto disk and then loaded into the Workfile by systems office staff.

YBP: SEE Yankee Book Peddler.

Yankee Book Peddler: The principal vendor at Bobst for domestic approval books (April 1996-).

ZYU: NYU code in OCLC.