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ODLIS
Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science
by Joan M. Reitz
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headword and definition headword only
à la fanfareSee: fanfare binding.
à repetitionA style of French bookbinding in which a single design element is repeated uniformly over the entire surface of the cover. Click here to see an 17th-century example using the fleur de lis (British Library) and here to see a late-19th-century example (Princeton University Library). See also: semé.
16mm filmMotion picture film that is 16 millimeters wide from edge to edge, with perforations along one edge and space for a sound track along the other (silent 16mm film has perforations on both sides). Introduced by Kodak in 1923 as a safe, nonflammable alternative for the amateur and educational (documentary) markets, 16mm film is the gauge most commonly found in the collections of American archives, libraries, and museums. Used extensively for military training films during World War II, it has 40 frames per foot and one perforation per frame. Sound 16mm film is shot and projected at a speed of 24 frames per second; silent 16mm at 16 frames per second. Introduced in 1971, Super 16mm is a negative-only film with a frame area 40 percent greater than regular 16mm, enlarged to 35mm in processing. Because 16mm cameras and projectors are portable and easy to operate, early enthusiasts formed cine clubs to share their work and exchange information. Many 16mm users switched to videotape in the 1970s when portable video equipment became widely available. The Ann Arbor Film Festival still features 16mm films. Click here to learn more, courtesy of Wikipedia. See also: 8mm film.
24/7 referenceLibrary reference services that are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for example, the QuestionPoint online collaborative reference service from OCLC.
35mm filmMotion picture film that is 35 millimeters wide from edge to edge, with perforations on both sides. Used by Thomas Edison in his Kinetoscope, a personal film viewer patented in 1887 and introduced at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts in 1893, 35mm film was originally made by cutting 70mm Eastman Kodak roll film in half down the center. It eventually became the standard gauge for the theatrical motion picture industry. With the introduction of sound in 1929, the frame was squared to allow space for the sound track, but the more visually pleasing rectangular frame was soon restored by reducing frame size. 35mm sound film has 16 frames per foot, 6 perforations per inch, and is shot and projected at a speed of 24 frames per second. Because 35mm film is expensive to use and the cameras and projectors are too bulky and heavy to be portable, Kodak developed smaller gauge films (16mm and 8mm) for the amateur and educational markets. Click here to learn more about 35mm film, courtesy of Wikipedia.
3-D movieSee: stereoscopic.
70mm filmA gauge of high-resolution motion picture film introduced in the 1950s that measures 65mm from edge to edge in the camera. On prints intended for projection, 2.5mm is added along each side to accommodate magnetic stripes capable of holding 6 tracks of surround sound. Each frame has 5 perforations on each side, with an aspect ratio of 2.2:1. Well-known theatrical 70mm films include 2001: Space Odyssey, Lawrence of Arabia, and My Fair Lady. IMAX 70mm films, shot on 65mm film with the frames positioned lengthwise, have no sound tracks on the projection print; instead, synchronized digital sound is played separately. Click here to learn more about 70mm film, courtesy of Wikipedia.
8mm filmA gauge of motion picture film that is 8 millimeters wide from edge to edge. Introduced for the home market by Kodak in 1932, "Cine Kodak Eight" utilized a special 16mm film that had double the number of perforations along both edges, enabling the filmmaker to run the film through the camera in one direction, then reload and expose the other half of the film, similar to the way an audiocassette is used. After development, the film was slit lengthwise down the center and spliced end to end in the laboratory, fitting four times as many frames in the same amount of film. Regular 8mm has 80 frames per foot and the same size sprocket holes as 16mm film. In 1965, Kodak introduced cartridge-loading Super 8mm that eliminated the need to flip and rethread the film. Super 8 has 74 frames per foot and smaller sprocket holes, leaving more area for the image. It is used by both amateurs and professionals and has developed a following among experimental filmmakers. Many well-known cinematographers and directors began their careers using Super 8. Click here to learn more, courtesy of Wikipedia. See also: 35mm film.
A and B rollsIn motion picture production, a method of cutting negative or positive film in which the first shot is placed on one roll (the "A" roll) with black or blank leader in the corresponding position on a second roll (the "B" roll), the second shot is put on the B roll with black or blank leader in the corresponding position on the A roll, and so on, resulting in a pair of checker-boarded production elements. When the shots are printed in succession onto the next generation stock, the splices between shots are concealed. The technique is also used to create fades and dissolves not done in optical printing. A and B rolls are usually unique.
a la poupée printA color print made by inking separate areas of the same plate or block by hand with different colors, using cotton daubs known as a "dollies" (poupées in French), thereby avoiding the problem of register which bedevils multiple plate color printing. Click here to see an example by William Blake, courtesy of the University of Rochester. When ink is applied a la poupée over previously inked and wiped areas of the plate, a common hue is imparted to the resulting colors; so to keep colors clear and bright, the printmaker must start from a clean plate, inking each part in its own color.
A&ISee: abstracting and indexing.
a.e.g.An abbreviation of all edges gilt. See: gilt edges.
a.e.m.An abbreviation of all edges marbled. Marbling applied to the fore-edge and the top and bottom edges of a volume (see this example).
a.k.a.An abbreviation of also known as. See: allonym, eponym, pen name, and pseudonym.
a.l.s.See: autograph letter signed.
AACRSee: Anglo-American Cataloging Rules.
AACR2See: Anglo-American Cataloging Rules.
AACR2 2002See: Anglo-American Cataloging Rules.
AACR2-eSee: Anglo-American Cataloging Rules.
AACR2RSee: Anglo-American Cataloging Rules.
AAHSLSee: Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries.
AALLSee: American Association of Law Libraries.
AAMESSee: Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Section.
AAPSee: Association of American Publishers.
AASSee: American Antiquarian Society.
AASLSee: American Association of School Librarians.
AATSee: Art & Architecture Thesaurus.
AAUPSee: American Association of University Professors and Association of American University Presses.
AB Bookman's WeeklyA trade publication used mainly by antiquarian booksellers to locate rare, out of print, and difficult to find titles, AB Bookman's Weekly began as a section of Publisher's Weekly under the title Antiquarian Bookman. In 1948 it became an independent weekly of the same title published by R.R. Bowker. Publication under the title AB Bookman's Weekly began in 1967 and ended in 1999.
ABASee: American Booksellers Association.
ABAASee: Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America.
abandoned property lawA statute of particular interest to archivists, describing the procedures by which an individual or organization may obtain clear, legal title to material it holds but does not own. In the United States, federal statutory law does not address abandoned property; such statutes are enacted state by state, with less than half of the 50 states having taken the step. Click here to learn about New Hampshire's Abandoned Property Law, courtesy of the New Hampshire State Treasurer. Synonymous with unclaimed property law.
abbreviationA shortened form of a word or phrase used for brevity in place of the whole, consisting of the first letter, or the first few letters, followed by a period (full stop), for example, assoc. for association or P.O. for post office. Some terms have more than one abbreviation (v. or vol. for volume). Also used as an umbrella term for any shortened form of a word or phrase not an acronym, initialism, or contraction, for example, the postal code CT for Connecticut. The rules governing the use of abbreviations in library catalog entries are given in Appendix B of AACR2. Click here to connect to the Google list of online acronym and abbreviation finders. Abbreviated abbr.
In medieval manuscripts, abbreviations were often used to save time and space, and readers of the time would have been familiar with them. Michelle Brown notes in Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts (Getty Museum/British Library, 1994) that Irish scribes relied on them extensively in copying pocket-size Gospel books used for study.
ABC bookSee: abecedary and alphabet book.
AbeBooksA leading online market place for used, rare, and out of print books, AbeBooks provides a list of over 40 million titles available from a network of over 10,000 booksellers. The company provides additional services to librarians, such as consolidated billing and purchase orders. Click here to connect to the AbeBooks.com homepage. See also: Alibris.
abecedariumSee: abecedary.
abecedariusSee: acrostic.
abecedaryA book containing the letters of the alphabet and basic rules of spelling and grammar, used in Europe as a primer before the invention of the printing press. Early printed examples (sometimes in the form of a broadsheet) displayed the alphabet in uppercase and lowercase letters in both roman and gothic type, with separate lists of vowels, dipthongs, and consonants. By 1700, some ABC books included children's rhymes. Synonymous with abecedarium (plural: abecedarii). See also: horn book.
aberrant copyA copy of a book containing obvious printing and/or binding errors that are more serious than minor defects.
aberrant dateIn archives, a date that falls outside the chronological sequence of dates pertaining to the majority of the documents in the record unit described (Richard Pearce-Moses, A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology, Society of American Archives).
ABFSee: Association des Bibliothécaires Français.
aboutnessThe totality of subjects explicitly or implicitly addressed in the text of a document, including but not limited to the meaning(s) of the title, the stated and unstated intentions of the author, and the ways in which the information may be used by readers. Levels of specificity must be considered in ascertaining the subject(s) of a work. In the case of the hypothetical title The Japanese Teamwork Approach to Improving High School Effectiveness, is the work about:
1. education? 2. educational effectiveness? 3. high school effectiveness? 4. teamwork? 5. a Japanese approach to teamwork?
As a general rule, catalogers and indexers assign the most specific subject headings that describe the significant content of the item. In a post-coordinate indexing system such as the one used in the ERIC database, the descriptors "Educational effectiveness," "High schools," "Japan," and "Teamwork" would probably be assigned to the example given above, but in a pre-coordinate system, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings list, the appropriate headings might be "High schools--Japan," "Teacher effectiveness--Japan," and "Teaching teams--Japan." See also: summarization.
above the foldThe printed half of a broadsheet newspaper that appears higher on the page than the horizontal fold. Articles placed near the top have greater prominence because most languages are read from top to bottom of the writing surface.
ABPCSee: American Book Prices Current.
abridgedSee: abridgment.
Abridged Decimal Classification (ADC)A logical truncation of the notational and structural hierarchy of the full edition of Dewey Decimal Classification, developed for general collections of 20,000 titles or less. Click here for more information, courtesy of OCLC.
abridgmentA shortened version or edition of a written work that preserves the overall meaning and manner of presentation of the original but omits the less important passages of text and usually any illustrations, notes, and appendices. Often prepared by a person other than the original author or editor, an abridged edition is generally intended for readers unlikely to purchase the unabridged version because of its length, complexity, or price (example: The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary). Also spelled abridgement. Abbreviated abr. Synonymous with condensation. Compare with simplified edition. See also: abstract, brief, digest, epitome, summary, and synopsis.
absenteeismThe failure of an employee to report for work, usually due to illness, accident, family responsibilities, or personal business. A persistently high rate of absenteeism may be a sign of low morale among the staff of a library or library system. See also: burnout.
absolute humiditySee: humidity.
absorbed titleSee: absorption.
absorbencyThe capacity of paper to absorb and retain moisture, which varies with type of paper and is of particular importance in printing processes that use liquid ink. See also: water-damaged.
absorptionThe incorporation of one serial by another. The note Absorbed: followed by the title of the assimilated serial is added to the bibliographic record representing the assimilating publication, and the corresponding note Absorbed by: followed by the title of the assimilating serial is added to the record for the assimilated publication. The absorbed title usually assumes the title and numbering of the assimilating publication. Compare with merger.
abstractA 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. 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.
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. In a scholarly journal article, the abstract should appear on the first page, following the title and name(s) of author(s) and preceding the text. In a separately published document, the abstract should be placed between the title page and the text. In an entry in a printed indexing and abstracting service or bibliographic database, the abstract accompanies the citation. Because the abstract is a searchable field in most bibliographic databases, attention must be paid by the abstractor to the keywords included in it. Authorship of an abstract can be unattributed or indicated by name or initials. Compare with summary. See also: abstracting journal, author abstract, and structured abstract.
abstract journalSee: abstracting journal.
abstractingThe 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 is usually limited to the literature of a specific discipline or group of related disciplines and is performed by an individual or commercial entity, such as an indexing and abstracting service, that provides abstracts regularly to a list of subscribers.
abstracting and indexing (A&I)A category of database that provides bibliographic citations and abstracts of the literature of a discipline or subject area, as distinct from a retrieval service that provides information sources in full-text.
abstracting journalA 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). Synonymous with abstract journal. Compare with abstracting service.
abstracting serviceA 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 subdiscipline. Compare with abstracting journal.
ACASee: Academy of Certified Archivists and Association of Canadian Archivists.
ACACCSee: Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives.
academic freedomThe principle that faculty members employed at institutions of higher education (including librarians with faculty status) should remain free to express their views and teach in the manner of their own choosing, without pressure or interference from administration, government, or any outside organization.
academic libraryA 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. In the United States, the professional association for academic libraries and librarians is the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), which publishes Standards for Libraries in Higher Education. For more information on academic libraries in the United States, see Academic Libraries: 2004, a report published in November 2006 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Libweb provides a list of links to academic libraries in the United States by region and state. Compare with research library. See also: college library, departmental library, graduate library, undergraduate library, and university library.
academic pressSee: university press.
academic statusRecognition given by an institution of higher education that the librarians in its employ are considered mem
