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A
Abstract
A short
summary of a work, book or journal article, accompanied by the
bibliographic description of the work. When searching library
databases you will on the most part get a summary (abstract) for
an article if not the full-text. In scholarly journals, articles
always include the abstract at the beginning of the article.
Annotated bibliography
A bibliography that includes not only the bibliographic
information on a source (title, author, source etc) but also a
description of the item.
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B
Bibliography
A bibliography is a list of references
that appear at the end of a paper, article, chapter, book or
essay. These references may have been cited within the text of
an article, book or essay or simply consulted. The bibliography
allows the reader to follow up on sources identified.
Boolean logic
Developed by the mathematician
George Boole. Boolean operators allow words or phrases to be
combined when searching the library catalogue or databases using
keywords.
They "operators" are:
AND used to narrow a search for example "children AND
exercise"
OR used to include synonyms or related terms for
example, "babies OR infants", "Ireland OR Eire"
NOT used to exclude a term from your search results
for example, "radio NOT television"
Browser
Computer programmes providing access to pages and sites on
the internet for example: Firefox, Internet Explorer.
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C
Citation
A reference providing information on sources quoted,
paraphrased or referred to in your essay or report. A citation
will always include information such as author, title, source,
publisher, date etc.
Common Knowledge
Information or facts that are so widely known that they
would not be contested and therefore do not need to be cited in
your work, for example there are 365 days in the year, world war
one began in 1914 ending in 1918.
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D
Databases (library)
A database is an organised collection of computer records. A
Library database consists of records describing articles in
journals and other material for example conference papers or
newspapers. By entering search terms (keywords) related to a
topic, users can retrieve information about articles of interest
from the database.
They offer a quick and effective way of searching for high
quality information on a particular subject. You can search
these databases by author, title, or conduct a subject or word
search.
Descriptors
Databases assign "descriptors" or "subject headings" to
records. These are terms that best describe the content of a
particular article or paper in the database.
Domain Name
The part of a web address that indicates the source of the
website and/or its purpose e.g.
.ie = website from Ireland (www.dcu.ie)
.com = commercial website (www.microsoft.com)
.edu – educational website (www.harvard.edu)
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E
Electronic Journal
A publication, often scholarly, that is made accessible in a
computerised format and distributed over the Internet.
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F
Full-text
When we refer to "full-text", it means that the entire
article or document is available to view in a library database
or on the web. Full-text sources are normally available to view
in pdf format using Adobe Acrobat or html.
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I
Index
An index is an alphabetical listing usually at the end of a
book or document which allows you to get the page number for
specific items in the book. The indexes are usually arranged by
subject. Library databases will also provide indexes by subject
or author to material within the database.
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J
Journals
A publication which is issued at regular intervals for
example; weekly or quarterly on an ongoing basis. Most journals
are subject based for example "American Journal of Nursing" or
"Critical Studies in Media Communication". Journals contain
articles written by experts in their field (scholarly journals)
and articles often describe research conducted by the author.
Journal articles will always include detailed bibliographies.
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K
Keyword
Words or phrases used to search a database or library catalogue.
All databases allow you to search by "keyword", meaning that the
word is "key" to your topic search. When you search using the
"keyword" option, your word or term will be searched to see if
it appears in the title of an article, summary or in some cases
even the full-text.
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L
Limiting (Limiters)
All databases will allow you to "limit" your search
results for example, you could limit your search to a
specific year or years, title of an article or book, a
specific author etc.
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M
Main lending Collection
The main lending collection houses the majority of the
Library's book collection. It is shelved on the first
and second floors of the Library. Material in the
collection can be borrowed for up to three weeks at a
time.
Monograph
A scholarly piece of writing on a specific subject,
usually a book. A monograph unlike a journal will only
appear once.
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N
Nesting
Nesting is a
method of combining similar concepts together. It is important
as it allows you to control how the terms are searched in a
database.
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P
Paraphrasing
You paraphrase something when you restate it in your own
words and retain the original meaning. We generally paraphrase
from text appearing in sources such as articles, books, reports
etc.
Peer review
Evaluation of a person's work or performance by a group of
people in the same occupation, profession, or industry (peers).
Periodical
A magazine or journal which is issued regularly (every week,
month etc).
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R
Reading List
List of books, journal articles and other material
recommended by a lecturer for a particular module.
Reference Material
Reference material refers to dictionaries, encylopedias which
are available online or in the Library's reference
collection on the ground floor. Reference works are an
excellent source when beginning research on a topic.
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S
Search strategy
A search strategy is a plan for how you will search for
information. Taking time to develop a search strategy
will save you time and help you get the best results
from your searches.
Short Loan Collection
Located on the ground floor of the Library, this collection
houses items that are in high demand and can only be borrowed
for short periods, for example 24 hours.
Synonym
A word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another
word or term for example, "infant" and "baby". It's always good
to consider synonyms when searching for information. Use a
Thesaurus to find synonyms.
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T
Thesaurus
A source that lists words and their synonyms or related terms.
Roget's Thesuarus is a well known source and available in the
Library. The Library also provides access to online thesauri via
the database Oxford Reference Online.
Truncation
Truncation is a symbol put at the end or in the middle of a word
in order to catch all variant endings or spellings of that word
when searching a database. Each database uses their own
truncation symbol – usually ?, $, # or *.
For example if the database uses ? as its truncation symbol,
entering comput? as a search term will retrieve records with the
terms computer, computers, computing, computerised,
computerized, etc. The truncation symbol is placed at the point
in the word where various endings can begin to occur.
The Help or Search Tips links for each database will tell you
which symbol to use for truncation.
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U
URL
This stands for Uniform Resource Locator. Basically it
refers to a web address for example the library's URL is
www.library.dcu.ie
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