Important LIS term ( Begin with C)

Call number
A unique code printed on a label affixed to the outside of an item in a library collection, usually to the lower spine of a book or videocassette, also printed or handwritten on a label inside the item to identify the specific copy of the work and give its relative location on the shelf.
In most collections, a call number is composed of a classification number followed by additional notation to make the call number unique. Generally, the class number is followed by an author mark to distinguish the work from others of the same class, followed by a work mark to distinguish the title from other works of the same class by the same author, and sometimes other information such as publication date, volume number, copy number, and location symbol.

Call slip
A brief form that the user must fill out to request an item from the closed stacks of a library or archives, or from some other nonpublic storage area, usually retrieved by hand by a staff member called a page, although automated and semi-automated retrieval systems are used in some large libraries

Carbon copy
A copy of a document made at the same time as the original by the use of thin paper coated on one side with a mixture of dark waxy pigment (initially carbon) easily transferred to a second blank sheet under the pressure of pen or typewriter.

Card catalog
A list of the holdings of a library, printed, typed, or handwritten on catalog cards, each representing a single bibliographic item in the collection. Catalog cards are normally filed in a single alphabetical sequence, or in separate sections by author, title, and subject, in the long narrow drawers of a specially designed filing cabinet, usually constructed of wood.

Cartography
The art and science of making maps, charts, and other cartographic materials.

Casebook
A book containing records or descriptions of actual cases that have occurred in a professional discipline, selected to illustrate important principles and concepts, for the use of students as a textbook and practitioners for reference.

Catalog
A comprehensive list of the books, periodicals, maps, and other materials in a given collection, arranged in systematic order to facilitate retrieval (usually alphabetically by author, title, and/or subject).

Catalog card
In manual cataloging systems, a paper card used to make a handwritten, typed, or printed entry in a card catalog, usually of standard size (3”X5” card), plain or ruled

Catalog code
A detailed set of rules for preparing bibliographic records to represent items added to a library collection, established to maintain consistency within the catalog and between the catalogs of libraries using the same code

Cataloger
A librarian primarily responsible for preparing bibliographic records to represent the items acquired by a library, including bibliographic description, subject analysis, and classification.

Cataloging
The process of creating entries for a catalog.

CD-ROM
Compact Disc-Read Only Memory, a small plastic optical disk similar to an audio compact disc, measuring 4.72 inches (12 centimeters) in diameter, used as a publishing medium and for storing information in digital format.
Each disc has the capacity to store 650 megabytes of data, the equivalent of 250,000 to 300,000 pages of text or approximately 1,000 books of average length. CD-ROMs can be used to store sound tracks, still or moving images, and computer files, as well as text. In libraries, CD-ROMs are used primarily as a storage medium for bibliographic databases and full-text resources, mostly dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works.

Chained book
A book with a strong metal chain firmly attached to the binding, usually at its head, to secure the volume to the shelf on which it is stored, or to the desk or lectern where it is to be read, as a means of preventing unauthorized removal.

Chapter
One of two ore more major divisions of a book or other work, each complete in itself but related in theme or plot to the division preceding and/or following it

Chronology
A book or section of a book that lists events and their dates in the order of their occurrence

Circulation
The process of checking books and other materials in and out of a library. Also refers to the total number of items checked out by library borrowers over a designated period of time and to the number of times a given item is checked out during a fixed period of time, usually one year.

Circulation desk
The service point at which books and other materials are checked in and out of a library, usually a long counter located near the entrance or exit, which may include a built-in book drop for returning borrowed materials.

Circulation history
A record that a patron borrowed a specific item, retained for a significant length of time after the item is returned to the library.

Circulation system
The methods used to record the loan of items from a library collection by linking data in the patron record to the item record for each item loaned.

Citation
In the literary sense, any written or spoken reference to an authority or precedent or to the verbatim words of another speaker or writer. In library usage, a written reference to a specific work or portion of a work (book, article, dissertation, report, musical composition, etc.) produced by a particular author, editor, composer, etc., clearly identifying the document in which the work is to be found.

Citation analysis
A bibliometric technique in which works cited in publications are examined to determine patterns of scholarly communication, in one or more academic disciplines.

Citation index
A three-part index in which works cited during a given year are listed alphabetically by name of author cited, followed by the names of the citing authors in a "Citation Index”.

Classification
The process of dividing objects or concepts into logically hierarchical classes, subclasses, and sub-subclasses based on the characteristics they have in common and those that distinguish them.

Classification schedule
The names assigned to the classes and subdivisions of a classification system, listed in the order of their symbolic notation.

Classification system
A list of classes arranged according to a set of pre-established principles for the purpose of organizing items in a collection, or entries in an index, bibliography, or catalog, into groups based on their similarities and differences, to facilitate access and retrieval

Classified catalog
A subject catalog in which entries are filed in the notational order of a pre-established classification system, with bibliographic records under as many subject headings as apply to the content of each item. An alphabetical subject index facilitates the use of a classified catalog, which is usually maintained alongside an author and/or title catalog.

Classified index
An index in which entries are arranged under headings and subheadings indicating hierarchical divisions and subdivisions within classes based on the subject matter indexed, rather than in alphabetical or numerical sequence.

Class number
The specific notation used in Dewey Decimal Classification to designate a class, for example, 943.085 assigned to works on the history of the Weimar Republic in Germany.

Close classification
A classification system in which the main classes and divisions are minutely subdivided, allowing very specific characteristics of each subject to be differentiated.

Closed catalog
A library catalog to which new bibliographic records are no longer added or in which additions are restricted to certain categories, although existing records continue to be removed as they are revised, corrected, and/or converted to machine-readable format.

Collection development
The process of planning and building a useful and balanced collection of library materials over a period of years, based on an ongoing assessment of the information needs of the library's clientele, analysis of usage statistics, and demographic projections, normally constrained by budgetary limitations. Collection development includes the formulation of selection criteria, planning for resource sharing, and replacement of lost and damaged items, as well as routine selection and deselection decisions.

Collective biography
A work in one or more volumes containing separate accounts of the lives of two or more individuals who lived within a specific time period, distinguished themselves in the same field or activity, or have some other characteristic in common .

Colon Classification
A classification system in which subjects are analyzed into facets based on their uses and relations, then represented by synthetically constructed classes with the parts separated by the colon (:). Developed by S.R. Ranganathan in the 1930s, Colon Classification is used in libraries in India and in research libraries throughout the world.

Comic book
A booklet, usually printed in color on paper made from wood pulp, containing one or more stories told pictorially in a continuous strip of panels drawn in cartoon style, with dialogue or monologue enclosed in balloons or given in captions

Copyright
The exclusive legal rights granted by a government to an author, editor, compiler, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to publish, produce, sell, or distribute copies of a literary, musical, dramatic, artistic, or other work, within certain limitations. Copyright law also governs the right to prepare derivative works, reproduce a work or portions of it, and display or perform a work in public.

Copyright fee
The payment required by a national copyright depository to register copyright of a creative work, which must be submitted with the completed application form and a deposit copy of the work

Cumulative index
An index designed to save the user's time by combining in a single sequence the entries listed in two or more previously published indexes, providing integrated access to a larger body of material.

Current awareness service
A service or publication designed to alert scholars, researchers, readers, customers, or employees to recently published literature in their field(s) of specialization, usually available in special libraries serving companies, organizations, and institutions in which access to current information is essential.

Current bibliography
A bibliography that includes only references to recently published sources on a subject or in a specific field or discipline.
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