A
Abstract - a summary of a document, book, article, report, or speech.
Academic Search Complete - one example of an online database, contains newspaper, magazine, and scholarly articles from many disciplines.
B
Book - different types of books include encyclopedias, dictionaries, and something called a monograph, which is a single book written on a subject.
Bibliography - a list of sources; also referred to as a Works Cited or References page and usually a required part of a research paper. Bibliographies are used to list the citations of books, journal articles, and web sites used in research.
C
Call Number – a unique combination of letters and numbers that is assigned to each item in the library. It acts like an address on the shelf for the item and arranges items on the same subject together on the shelf.
Citation - the basic information needed to find specific materials. For a book this information includes author, title, place of publication, publisher, and date published. For an article, the citation usually includes author, title, name of journal, magazine or newspaper, date, volume, and pages and sometime a permalink, doi, or other digital identifier.
Credible Sources - a source that is believable, trusted, relatively unbiased and backed up with evidence. Articles from scholarly journals are examples of credible sources examined by experts in the field before they are published.
D
Database - a collection of sources including, articles, videos, books, audio books, images and more made available to students through college libraries. Academic Search Complete is one example of a database.
Detailed Record- page that gives details about one particular book or article.
Discovery Service or Layer- an online platform or layer that brings together a variety of library resources and allows searching across multiple databases and the library catalog.
Domain - part of a website’s address. The domain tells about the organization: .gov, .edu. etc.
F
Full-text - a full text article contains the full text of the entire article. This can be available as a either an HTML and/or PDF file.
H
HTML - a computer language, Hypertext Markup Language. This is used to create documents that you can read on the Internet. In databases, HTML documents look like webpages. They are usually text-only and exclude information like page numbers, photos, charts, etc.
J
Jefferson College Library Catalog- Jefferson College Library’s online catalog that allows you to search our collection of over 60,000 books, ebooks, DVDs, audio books and other items.
Journal - a periodical which is usually considered more scholarly than a popular magazine. Journal articles are usually peer-reviewed and contain footnotes and/or bibliographical references.
K
Keyword Search - a broad search using words related to a topic or question asked in the research process to search the Internet or a database. A keyword search returns all records that contain the keyword(s). It does not necessarily narrow the search to a specific topic.
M
Magazine - a periodical publication usually considered to be of more general or popular interest than a journal. Usually written by journalists rather than experts in a subject.
MOBIUS - a group of mostly academic Missouri libraries, including Jefferson College, that share resources. Through MOBIUS, you have access to over 22 million books.
P
PDF - Portable Document Format, a type of online document that is displayed in its original format, with layout, photos, charts, etc. One way to read PDF files is through Adobe Acrobat.
Peer-review - a process by which scholars critique the work of other scholars and ensure only quality articles get published.
Periodical - a magazine, journal, newspaper, or other publication which is published at regular intervals.
R
Reference Resources - sources of general factual information, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias. They can be a more credible alternative to Wikipedia.
Research Process -research starts with a question. It involves locating, gathering, and analyzing the information needed to support this question. The process is not always linear or immediately successful. In fact, good research is revised and steps are changed as knowledge about the subject develops.
S
Scholarly Journal - also referred to as academic journals, scientific journals, or peer reviewed journals, is a periodical that contains articles written by experts in a particular field of study
Sources - different types of publications such as books, ebooks, audio books, magazines, newspapers, and journals that are used for research..
Subject Headings or Terms – are specialized terms used to organize materials such as books and articles into specific categories based on the topic of the source.
Subject Search - a narrow search using specialized subject headings or subject terms. A subject search returns specific results that pertain to particular topics. Subject searches may be performed in the discovery service, the article databases or the book catalog.