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Click on a letter below to find your term. If you do not find the term you need,
refer to one of our
glossary links.
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Abstract
1. A brief summary of the points in an article.
2. A source that compiles by subject, author or title articles in a selected group of periodicals and includes a summary
of each article.
UIUC Library Glossary
Agency
1. An authority of the government of the United States, whether it is within or
subject to review by another agency or stand-alone.
2. Does not include Congress, judiciary, US territory governments, or
Washington DC
government.
5 USC 551
Almanac
1. A compendium of useful data and statistics relating to countries, personalities, events, and subjects.
UIUC Library Glossary
ASI (American Statistics Index)
1. Since 1974, indexes and abstracts statistical publications of the executive branch, Congress, the judiciary, independent regulatory agencies, and other federal bodies.
Consists of index and abstract paper volumes. Also accessible via LexisNexis Statistical.
Introduction to United States Government Information Sources (6th ed.)
Author
1. When searching in an online system, such as the UIUC gateway catalog, for government information, the author field
refers to the issuing agency’s name.
e.g. AUTHOR: U.S. Geological Survey
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Bibliographic Database
1. Bibliographic databases provide access by such fields as
author, title, and subject
to a group of periodicals, books, or proceedings
or provide information about books.
Bill
1.A legislative proposal before Congress.
a. Bills from the House are stemmed H.R.
b. Bills from the Senate are stemmed S.
Congressional Glossary -- further bill definitions
Boolean Search
1. Referring to logical or algebraic operations, formulated by George Boole, involving
variables with two values, such as Value 1 and Value 2; Value 1 or Value 2; and Value
1 but not Value 2.(ALA Glossary)
Examples of Boolean Search techniques:
cat AND dog = all things that refer to both cats and dogs
cat OR dog = all things that refer to either cats or dogs
cat NOT dog = all things with cats that do not refer also to dogs.
UIUC Library Glossary
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CIC VEL
Committee on Institutional Cooperation Virtual Electronic Library
1. Links the catalogs
of the Big 10 libraries and the University of Chicago
CIS Index
Congressional Information Service Index
1. From 1970 to present, indexes and abstracts Congressional hearings and offers full text on microfiche. Also contains abstracts for committee prints and reports
Committee Report
1. The document setting forth a committee’s explanation of its action.
For more detail, see
http://www.thecapitol.net/glossary/r.htm#Report
Congressional Session
1. The period during which Congress assembles and carries on its regular business. Each Congress generally has two regular sessions (a first session and a second session), based on the
Constitutional mandate that Congress assemble at least once each year.
Controlled Vocabulary
1. The standardization of words which may be used to search an index, abstract or
information database. There is usually a published listing or thesaurus of preferred terms identifying the system's vocabulary.
UIUC Library Glossary
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Database
1. A structured set of information, stored in a book, disk, computer, etc.
UIUC Library Glossary
Decennial Census
1. The census of population and housing, taken in each year ending in zero.
a. The first census of population was taken in 1790. The Census Bureau first conducted the census
of housing in 1940.
Glossary of Census Terms
Demographic(s)
1. The statistical characteristics of human populations (as age or income) used especially to identify markets
Merriam Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary
Depository
1. A library which receives the publications of a government or official body.
2. Provides local, no-fee
access to Government information in an impartial environment with
professional assistance.
UIUC Library Glossary
Dewey Decimal System
1. A highly structured arrangement of all areas of knowledge into numbers ranging from 000 to 999.
UIUC Library Glossary
Document
See “Government Information”
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Economic
1. Of, relating to, or based on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
having practical or industrial significance or uses : affecting material resources.
Merriam Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary
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FDLP (Federal Depository Library Program)
1. Established by
Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its
Government's information
2. Provides Government information at
no cost to designated depository libraries throughout the country and
territories.
Fugitive Document
1. Government documents not submitted to the depository program.
Full-text Database
1. A database providing access to the full intellectual body of the work, not just a bibliographic
representation, as in a bibliographic database.
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Government Information
Related term: Document
1. Informational matter which is published as an individual document at government expense, or as required by law.
GPO
Government Printing Office
1. An agency of the executive branch of the federal government, GPO
produces and distributes Federal Government information products.
GPO Access
1. Provides no-fee access to information from all three
branches of the Government
2. GPO Access links the public to more than 220,000 individual titles on GPO’s servers and on other Federal
Web sites
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Hearing
1. Committee sessions for taking testimony from witnesses.
Congressional Glossary
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IGI
Illinois Governmental Information Service
1. IGI currently provides access to State of Illinois Web pages
Click here
IGO
International Intergovernmental Organization
e.g. United Nations, European Union, etc.
IIS
Index to International Statistics
1. Indexes and abstracts statistical titles published by IGO’s
Index
1. A list arranged
usually in alphabetical order of some specified datum (as author, subject, or
keyword)
a. a list of items (as topics or names) in a printed work that gives for each item the page
number where it may be found
b. a bibliographical analysis of groups of publications that is usually published periodically
Merriam Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary
IO – Illinet Online
1. The statewide online catalog used by over 40 libraries in Illinois. The UIUC Online
Catalog is a subset of Illinet Online.
UIUC Library Glossary
IRRC
Information Resource Retrieval Center
1. The Interlibrary
Loan Department for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/irrc
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Keyword
1.A significant word from a title or document used as an index to
the document content.
Merriam Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary
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Law
1: a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority: as
a: a command or provision enacted by a legislature
(see also statute § 1)
b: something (as a judicial decision) authoritatively accorded binding or controlling effect in the
administration of justice.
Example: that case is no longer the law of this circuit
2 a: a body of laws
Findlaw Glossary of Legal Terms
LC – Library of Congress
1. An institution set up to serve the members of Congress.
1. Its mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and
preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.
Legislation
1. The exercise of the power and function of making rules that have the force of authority by virtue of their promulgation by an official organ of the state
2. The enactments of a legislator or legislative body
3. A matter of business for or under consideration by a legislative body
Example: recently proposed legislation
Findlaw Glossary of Legal Terms
Library Gateway
1. The online portal to a variety of UIUC library services, including individual library pages,
usage guides, reference services, and Illinet Online.
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Microfiche
1. A format; photographically reduced images reproduced on a small 4 x 6 sheets of film.
2. Often used to provide backup for periodicals with missing pages.
UIUC Library Glossary
Microfilm
1. A format; photographically reduced images of printed pages on 35mm film. This format
also provides backup for periodicals with missing pages. Older issues of newspapers are
often microfilmed because newsprint deteriorates so rapidly.
Historical census data is also found in microfilm format.
UIUC Library Glossary
Monograph
1. A book. A separate treatise on a single subject or class of subjects, or on one person,
usually detailed in treatment but not extensive in scope and often containing
bibliographies.
UIUC Library Glossary
Monthly Catalog
1. Published monthly by the GPO
1. A catalog of all US government information products that are submitted to the federal depository library program.
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NGO
1. International Non-Governmental Organizations associated with the United Nations.
NTIS
National Technical Information Service
1. A central resource for government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and
business related information.
http://www.ntis.gov/
NOCIR
1. Non-circulating - the loan period for items which do not circulate outside a library, such
as reference works. However, items with this circulation code may still be used within
a library.
UIUC Library Glossary
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OCLC
1. A bibliographic network based on an online database of approximately 28 million
cataloging records from its 5500 members, including those of UIUC Library since 1975.
It now serves more than 18,000 libraries in 52 countries. The OCLC database is used
for cataloging, for reference work, and for interlibrary loan. It is the world's largest and
most comprehensive database of bibliographic information. URL:
http://www.oclc.org/
UIUC Library Glossary
ODS
Official Documents System
1. The electronic repository for official
documents published by the United Nations
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Patent
1. The grant of a property right to an inventor.
2. Grants the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention
http://www.lawnotes.com/patent/glossary.html
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Record
1. A single document in a database. In an electronic index, a record consists of a citation
(with or without an abstract) for a single periodical article.
UIUC Library Glossary
Regulation
1. A rule or order issued by a government agency and often having the force of law
Findlaw Glossary of Legal Terms
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Serial
1. Materials issued at regular or irregular intervals and intended to continue indefinitely.
2. Includes periodicals, magazines, journals, and yearbooks.
UIUC Library Glossary
Serial Set
1. Serial Set reports include Congressional committee and
administrative reports of the U.S. Senate and House of
Representatives. Serial Set documents include directories, orations,
journals, and many other types of materials. This
collection typically houses historical documents from the legislature and
associated agencies.
Series
1. A group of separate bibliographic items related to one another by the fact that each item
bears, in addition to its own title proper, a collective title applying to the group as a
whole. The individual items may or may not be numbered. (AACR 2) For example, The
Death Penalty is a book in the Opposing Viewpoints series.
UIUC Library Glossary
SRI
Statistical Reference Index
1. Announces statistical publications of state governments, associations, and institutes, business and commercial publishers, and universities.
Introduction to United States Government Information p.289
Stacks
1. A structure of bookshelves for compact storage of books -- usually used in plural
Merriam Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary
Statistics
1. A collection of quantitative data
Merriam Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary
Stop Word
1. A commonly used word, such as “the” “and” “it”
a. when searching a database or online, such words should be left out of the search query.
SuDoc Number
1. The classification scheme used by the U.S. Superintendent of Documents. Used to
create call numbers for most U.S. government documents received at the UIUC Library
since 1980.
a. Publications are grouped by the issuing agency.
Example: C61.34:992 (Commerce Department publication)
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Tariff
1. A schedule of duties imposed by a government on imported or in some countries exported goods
a. a duty or rate of duty imposed in such a schedule
2: A document filed with the appropriate government agency that sets forth the rates, charges, and other provisions pertaining to services furnished by a business (as a carrier) or public utility
Findlaw Glossary of Legal Terms
Truncation
1. In database searching, the addition of a special symbol (*, #, ?, etc.) to the root of a
word to match any record in a database that begins with the letters to the left of the
symbol. For example, in the online catalog typing forest? as an Expert Keyword
search would find records containing the words forest, forestry, forests, forested, etc.
UIUC Library Glossary
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United Nations (UN)
1. An IGO that works to maintain international
peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations; to cooperate in solving
international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems and in promoting respect
for human rights and fundamental freedoms; and to be a center for harmonizing the actions
of nations in attaining these ends.
a. Established in 1945 by 26 original member nations
b. Examples of prominent branches are:
General Assembly, Security Council,
Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice and
Secretariat.
http://www.un.org
URL
1. The address of a computer or a document on the Internet that consists
of a communications protocol followed by a colon and two slashes (as
http://), the identifier of a computer (as www.uiuc.edu) and usually a
path through a directory to a file -- called also uniform resource
locator, universal resource locator
Merriam Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary
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Vertical File
1. A file cabinet or file box containing a collection of pamphlets, newspaper clippings, or
other small published items.
a. The Documents Library maintains a vertical file of largely uncatalogued publications.
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World Cat
1. Contains all the records cataloged by OCLC
member libraries – a bibliographic database
WTO
World Trade Organization.
1. The only global international
organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations.
a. Its goal is to help
producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their
business
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Yearbook
1. An annual compendium of facts and statistics on a particular subject for the preceding
year.
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GLOSSARY LINKS:
Census:
(including American Community Survey, Decennial Census, Geographic terms, and abbreviations)
http://www.census.gov/main/www/glossary.html
Legislative terms:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/senate/scc/legislat1.htm
Congressional terms:
http://www.thecapitol.net/glossary/index.shtml
Tax terms:
http://www.irs.gov/taxi/taxterms.html
Patent terms:
Very general:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/whatis.htm
More specific:
http://www.lawnotes.com/patent/glossary.html
Legal terms:
Basic (kids):
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/kidspage/text/glossary.html
Legal Dictionary:
http://dictionary.lp.findlaw.com/
Acronyms and Abbreviations:
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/gov/docs_abbrev.html
UIUC Library glossary:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/help/Orientation/glossary.asp
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