Important LIS term ( Begin with A)

Important LIS term beginning with A

Abstract
An abstract is a brief, objective representation of the essential content of a book, article, speech, report, dissertation, patent, standard, or other work, presenting the main points in the same order as the original but having no independent literary value.
Length depends on the type of document abstracted and the intended use of the abstract. As a general rule, abstracts of long documents, such as monographs and theses, are limited to a single page (about 300 words); abstracts of papers, articles, and portions of monographs are no longer than 250 words; abstracts of notes and other brief communications are limited to 100 words; and abstracts of very short documents, such as editorials and letters to the editor, are about 30 words long
A well-prepared abstract enables the reader to
1) Quickly identify the basic content of the document,
2) Determine its relevance to their interests, and
3) Decide whether it is worth their time to read the entire document.
An abstract can be informative, indicative, critical, or written from a particular point of view (slanted). Examples of the various types of abstracts can be seen in the Appendix of the ANSI/NISO Z39.14 Guidelines for Abstracts.

Abstracting
The preparation of a brief, objective statement (abstract) of the content of a written work to enable the researcher to quickly determine whether reading the entire text might satisfy the specific information need.

Abstracting journal
A journal that specializes in providing summaries (called abstracts) of articles and other documents published within the scope of a specific academic discipline or field of study (example: Peace Research Abstracts Journal).

Abstracting service
A commercial indexing service that provides both a citation and a brief summary or abstract of the content of each document indexed (example: Information Science & Technology Abstracts). Numbered consecutively in order of addition, entries are issued serially in print, usually in monthly or quarterly supplements, or in a regularly updated bibliographic database available by subscription. Abstracting services can be comprehensive or selective within a specific academic discipline or sub discipline.

Academic library
A library that is an integral part of a college, university, or other institution of postsecondary education, administered to meet the information and research needs of its students, faculty, and staff.

Access
The right of entry to a library or its collections.
In computing, the privilege of using a computer system or online resource, usually controlled by the issuance of access codes to authorized users. In a more general sense, the ability of a user to reach data stored on a computer or computer system.

Access code
An identification code, such as a username, password, or PIN, which a user must enter correctly to gain access to a computer system or network. In most proprietary systems, access codes are tightly controlled to exclude unauthorized users.

Access copy
A copy of a motion picture on film, videotape, DVD, or some other medium, used for public service, as opposed to a copy used for preservation or a master used for duplication. Similarly, a copy of a photograph or other document made in any format for normal daily use, to protect the original from wear and accidental damage.

Accessibility
The ease with which a person may enter a library, gain access to its online systems, use its resources, and obtain needed information regardless of format.

Accession
To record in an accession list the addition of a bibliographic item to a library collection, whether acquired by purchase or exchange or as a gift.. The process of making additions to a collection is known as accessions.

Accession number
A unique number assigned to a bibliographic item in the order in which it is added to a library collection, recorded in an accession record maintained by the technical services department. Most libraries assign accession numbers in continuous numerical sequence, but some use a code system to indicate type of material and/or year of accession in addition to order of accession.

Accession record
A list of the bibliographic items added to a library collection in the order of their addition. Normally such a list includes the accession number, brief bibliographic identification, source, and price paid for each item.

Accuracy
The quality of correctness as to fact and of precision as to detail in information resources and in the delivery of information services.

Acquisitions
The process of selecting, ordering, and receiving materials for library or archival collections by purchase, exchange, or gift, which may include budgeting and negotiating with outside agencies, such as publishers, dealers, and vendors, to obtain resources to meet the needs of the institution's clientele in the most economical and expeditious manner.

Adjunct
A librarian employed part-time in an academic library at an institution that grants librarians faculty status. At some institutions, an adjunct employed less than half-time may not be eligible for benefits.

Administration
The range of activities normally associated with the management of a government agency, organization, or institution, such as a library or library system. Also refers collectively to the persons responsible for such activity, from director to secretary.

Adopt a book
A library program in which a person, often a library patron, agrees to donate a modest sum (usually a fixed amount) to help cover the cost of conserving a book or other bibliographic item that is deteriorating from age or overuse.

Adult learner
A person older than traditional college age who pursues an independent, organized course of study, usually without the benefit of formal instruction at an established educational institution.

Advance copy
A copy of a book or other publication bound in advance of the normal press run to enable the publisher to check that all is in order before binding of the edition proceeds. Advance copies are also sent to booksellers, book club selection committees, and reviewers before the announced publication date, sometimes unbound or in a binding other than the publisher's binding, often with a review slip laid in.

Advice book
A form of literature for women that provided practical and philosophical guidance on the domestic skills required in everyday life, such as etiquette, household management, cooking, gardening, childcare, family health and recreation, and female employment, often written from the perspective of a parent, Christian minister, or other authority, rather than from a feminist point of view.

Advisory service
A periodical publication, usually issued weekly, biweekly, or monthly in print or online, providing research, statistical analysis, and guidance on financial investments (stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, etc.).

Affiliated library
A library that is, by formal agreement, part of a larger library system but administered independently by its own board or management structure.

Aggregator
A bibliographic service that provides online access to the digital full-text of periodicals published by different publishers.

Almanac
Originally, a book introduced by the Moors to Spain, listing the days, weeks, and months of the year and providing information about festivals, holidays, astronomical phenomena, etc. In modern usage, an annual compendium of practical dates, facts, and statistics, current and/or retrospective, often arranged in tables to facilitate comparison. Almanacs can be general (example: World Almanac and Book of Facts) or related to a specific subject or academic discipline. Information Please is an example of a modern online almanac.

Alphabet book
A picture book for preschool children with illustrations designed to teach the letters and sequence of the alphabet by showing on each page, or double spread, one or more objects, animals, etc., belonging to a class whose name begins with the letter displayed (A for Apple, B for Book, etc.).

American Library Association (ALA)
The leading professional association of public and academic libraries and librarians in the United States, the ALA was founded in Philadelphia in October 1876 by a group of library leaders (90 men and 13 women) that included Melvil Dewey. An "association of associations," the ALA is organized in divisions, each with its own officers, budget, and programs, and is closely tied to over 50 state and regional chapters. The Association also sponsors round tables on specific issues and topics and is affiliated with other independent library-related organizations.

Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR)
A detailed set of standardized rules for cataloging various types of library materials that had its origin in Catalog Rules: Author and Title Entries, published in 1908 under the auspices of the American Library Association and the Library Association (UK), and the A.L.A. Cataloging Rules for Author and Title Entries (1949), with its companion volume Rules for Descriptive Cataloging in the Library of Congress. Cooperation between the ALA, the Library Association, and the Canadian Library Association resumed with the joint publication in 1967 of Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, which is divided into two parts: rules for creating the bibliographic description of an item of any type and rules governing the choice and form of entry of headings (access points) in the catalog.

Annotated bibliography
A bibliography in which a brief explanatory or evaluative note is added to each reference or citation. An annotation can be helpful to the researcher in evaluating whether the source is relevant to a given topic or line of inquiry.

Annotation
A brief note, usually no longer than two or three sentences, added after a citation in a bibliography to describe or explain the content or message of the work cited or to comment on it.

Annual review
A serial publication that surveys the most important works of original research and creative thought published in a specific discipline or sub discipline during a given calendar year (example: Annual Review of Information Science and Technology

Anthology
A collection of extracts or complete works by various authors, selected by an editor for publication in a single volume or multivolume set. Anthologies are often limited to a specific literary form or genre (short stories, poetry, plays) or to a national literature, theme, time period, or category of author. The works anthologized are listed in the table of contents by title in order of appearance in the text.

Antiquarian book
An old, used out of print book, more valuable than most secondhand books because of its rarity and/or condition, usually sold by an antiquarian bookseller.

APA style
A guide for typing research papers in the social sciences, developed by the American Psychological Association, which includes the proper format for typing notes and bibliographic citations.

Archival copy
A copy of a document specifically created or designated for archival storage by the company, government, organization, or institution that wishes to preserve it, usually for legal, evidential, or historical purposes.

Archival database
An organized collection of records in digital format, containing information to be retained for an indefinite period of time, usually for future reference.

Archives
An organized collection of the noncurrent records of the activities of a business, government, organization, institution, or other corporate body, or the personal papers of one or more individuals, families, or groups, retained permanently (or for a designated or indeterminate period of time) by their originator or a successor for their permanent historical, informational, evidential, legal, administrative, or monetary value, usually in a repository managed and maintained by a trained archivist.

Archivist
The person responsible for managing and maintaining an archival collection, usually a librarian with special training in archival practices and methods, including the identification and appraisal of records of archival value, authentication, accessioning, description and documentation, facilitation of access and use, preservation and conservation, and exhibition and publication to benefit scholarship and satisfy public interest.

Atlas
A bound or boxed collection of maps, usually related in subject or theme, with an index of place names usually printed at the end.
Audio book
A book read aloud and recorded on audiotape or compact disc (CD), usually by a professional actor or reader or by the author.

Audiocassette
An audiotape permanently enclosed in a hard plastic case containing two take-up reels to which the ends of the tape are attached for playback and rewinding.

Audiotape
A continuous strip of thin magnetic tape on which sounds can be recorded as electrical signals and converted back into sound with the proper playback equipment.

Audiovisual (AV)
A work in a medium that combines sound and visual images, for example, a motion picture or video recording with a sound track, or a slide presentation synchronized with audiotape.

Author
The person or corporate entity responsible for producing a written work (essay, monograph, novel, play, poem, screenplay, short story, etc.) whose name is printed on the title page of a book or given elsewhere in or on a manuscript or other item and in whose name the work is copyrighted. A work may have two or more joint authors. In library cataloging, the term is used in its broadest sense to include editor, compiler, composer, creator, etc.

Author bibliography
A bibliography of works written by or about a specific author, which can vary in detail and extent from an unannotated list of selected titles to a comprehensive, in-depth descriptive bibliography.
Author entry
The entry in a catalog, index, or bibliography under the authorized heading for the first-named author of a work, whether it be a person or corporate body. In most library catalogs, the author entry is the main entry.

Author index
An alphabetically arranged index in which the headings are the names of the individuals and corporate bodies responsible for creating the works indexed. Author entries may be combined with the subject index or title index, rather than listed separately.

Author’s copy
One of six or more complimentary copies of a published work normally provided to the author free of charge by the publisher at the time of first publication.. In a more general sense, an association copy that is known, usually on the basis of documentary evidence, to have belonged to the author of the work. Faculty members sometimes donate complimentary copies of their works to the academic library at the college or university with which they are affiliated

Authorship
The origin of a manuscript, book, or other written work, with reference to its author(s). In a more general sense, the source of an idea or creative work in any form, with reference to its creator or originator, for example, the composer of a musical work. When authorship of an anonymous work cannot be determined with a reasonable degree of certainty, it is said to be of unknown authorship.

Autobiography
An account of a person's life written by its subject, usually in the form of a continuous narrative of events considered by the author to be the most important or interesting, selected from those he or she is willing to reveal (example: The Autobiography of Rabindranath Thagor). An autobiography differs from a diary or journal in being written for others rather than for purely private reasons

Autograph book
A book with blank pages intended for the collection of signatures of friends and/or famous people, with or without accompanying inscriptions. The value of an autograph book in the collectors' market depends on the rarity of the signatures it contains.

Automatic indexing
A method of indexing in which an algorithm is applied by a computer to the title and/or text of a work to identify and extract words and phrases representing subjects, for use as headings under which entries are made in the index.

Auxiliary schedule
In library classification, a separate list of classes (with their notations) that serves only to subdivide the classes listed in the main schedules, for example, the standard subdivisions listed in Table 1 of Dewey Decimal Classification.

Credit given to http://lu.com/odlis/index.cfm