abstract—a
brief summary of an article's content. Abstracts can save you time by helping
you identify the best articles on your topic.
bound
volumes—back
issues of periodicals that are shelved in the stacks of the NCC Libraries.
browsers—provide
a graphical interface to information on the Web. They display pages written
in HTML and make it possible for you to click on links to jump to other
pages. This neat invention is called hypertext.
The most
popular browsers are Netscape's Navigator/Communicator and Microsoft's
Internet Explorer. Regardless of which browser you choose, you can access
the same information and can configure the software to match your personal
preferences.
Each
browser interprets some HTML elements in its own way, so the same page
might display differently, depending on which brower you use.
database—provides
a way of organizing information so that you can easily find what you are
looking for.
Some types of databases are:
Print
Databases
The index of a book is a print database. It allows you to go quickly to
a topic in the book. A phone book is another type of print database.
Electronic Databases
We usually think of searchable electronic indexes and catalogs when we
refer to databases. ProQuest Direct is an example of an electronic
database. It quickly looks for a topic in periodicals.
fields—Citations
for books and articles provide basic information such as the author of the
work, its title, publication information and so on. Each of these types
of information is called a field and can be used to search a particular
part of the record. For example, when you use an author search you are searching
only the author field. Keyword searches give you the option of searching
all the fields at the same time.
full
text—the
complete text of an article available online. Some periodical databases
provide full text articles. If the full text is available, you'll see
this symbol next to the citation:
Library
of Congress Classification System (LC)—
Northampton Community College
Libraries use LC to arrange its collection of materials by subject. LC
is divided into 21 branches of knowledge represented by letters:
A
- General works
B - Philosophy
C - Auxiliary sciences of history
D - History (general)
E-F - History (Americas)
G - Geography
H - Social sciences
J - Political science
K - Law
L
- Education
M
- Music
N - Visual arts
P - Language and literature
Q - Science
R - Medicine
S - Agriculture
T - Technology
U - Military science
V - Naval science
Z - Bibliography; library science
Each
branch is divided into more specific topics represented by combinations
of letters and numbers. For example, the book Teleworking has
the call number HD 2336.3 B523 1995:
H
- Social sciences and business
HD - Economic history and conditions
2321 - 4730 - Industry
2331 - 2336 - Household Industry
2336.3 - Telecommuting
recursive
process—a process that requires certain steps, but can be
completed using different combinations
search
engine—an online tool that helps you find information on
the Web
server—a
computer processor that provides services including access files and control
a printer
source—a
person or a document that can be used in research to supply information.
Web—only
one part of the Internet. It is a collection of information of miscellaneous
documents, articles, opinions, stories, art, sounds and animations stored
on Web servers, that you can access with a Web browser.