Research Tools

RESEARCH TOOLS...

Catalog

A comprehensive list of the books, periodicals, maps, and other materials in a given collection, searchable by author, title, subject heading, and keywords.

EXAMPLE: Geneseo Libraries Online Catalog, GLOCAT

Electronic Database

A computer file consisting of electronic entries called records, each containing a uniform description of a specific document or bibliographic item, usually retrievable by author, title, subject heading (descriptor), or keyword(s). Some bibliographic databases are general in scope and coverage; others provide access to the literature of a specific discipline or group of disciplines. An increasing number provide the full-text of at least a portion of the sources indexed.

EXAMPLE: Communication Abstracts

Print Index

An alphabetically arranged list of headings consisting of the personal names, places, and subjects treated in a written work, with page numbers to refer the reader to the point in the text at which information pertaining to the heading is found. In single-volume works of reference and nonfiction, any indexes appear at the end of the back matter.
Also refers to an open-end finding guide to the literature of an academic field or discipline (example: Philosopher's Index), to works of a specific literary form (Biography Index) or published in a specific format (Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature), or to the analyzed contents of a serial publication (New York Times Index). Indexes of this kind are usually issued in monthly or quarterly paperback supplements, cumulated annually. Citations are usually listed by author and subject in separate sections, or in a single alphabetical sequence under a system of authorized headings collectively known as controlled vocabulary, developed over time by the indexing service.

EXAMPLE: Subject Index to the SUNY Geneseo Compass

World Wide Web

A global network of Internet servers providing access to documents written in a script called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that allows content to be interlinked, locally and remotely. The "Web" was designed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, working at the CERN high-energy physics lab in Geneva. Mark Andreeson, a student a the University of Illinois, later devised a simple point-and-click system called Mosaic that subsequently evolved into the Netscape Web browser.

EXAMPLE: From the Milne Library web site --> Research Resources

Source:

ODLIS: Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science. Joan M. Reitz. Libraries Unlimited. 16 February 2005 <http://lu.com/odlis/>.