ALL ABOUT: Library Database Terms

Catalog, Abstracts, Index, Bibliography

In database names, these terms indicate databases that contain (and search) descriptions of materials rather than the material's full text. They are particularly common in subject-specific databases, like Philosopher’s Index or Race Relations Abstracts.

The terms generally indicate different levels of detail:

  • Abstracts usually means there are brief summaries of the materials described.
  • Bibliography and Index could be as bare-bones as author, title, publisher, or date. They could also contain detailed subject terms and other metadata.
  • Catalog is most commonly used for books but can apply to a complete set of descriptive records for any collection of objects.

Record

The basic unit of most databases, often displayed as a card or page inset. A record contains all the information for a specific item.

Bibliographic

Describing a written text. Most records in library catalogs are bibliographic records.

Thesaurus, Index

When you see these terms on a database menu, they usually link to an alphabetical list of terms used in that database. (If you’re lucky, it’s a well-defined controlled vocabulary. Sometimes, it’s a much more haphazard list of terms that happen to appear in the database.)

Visit: ALL ABOUT: Controlled Vocabulary for more details.

Limiters, Filters, Refine

Options to view specific portions of your search results. Use these options to:

  • Limit your results to journal articles
  • Remove all of the dissertations from your results
  • Show only items published between 1999-2011

Vist: ALL ABOUT: Refining Your Searches for more details.

Booleans, Wildcards, Truncation

These are all search operators.

  • Booleans refer to the operators and, not, and or.
  • Wildcards allow you to leave a single character unspecified (wom?n).
  • Truncation allows you to leave the end of a word unspecified (feminis*).

Visit: ALL ABOUT: Search Operators & Wildcards for more details.

Subjects, Terms, Keywords, Headings

These are all topic descriptors.

  • Keywords are often author-supplied and tend not to conform to a controlled vocabulary. 
  • Headings or Major subjects are often macro-descriptors.
  • Subjects and Terms come from subheadings.

It’s a good idea to consult the database’s help page. There’s a lot of variation in which words a database might use to indicate which kind of descriptor.

Unique Identifiers

A single publication or item can have a unique identifier assigned to it. (In practice, there are exceptions to the uniqueness).

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

ISBN Links to an external site.s identify specific editions and formats of books (e.g., the 1992 paperback). This can help you ensure that you're looking at exactly the publication you have in mind. Cross-referencing these numbers can sometimes lead to pages with information about other formats. Remember that the number itself is only searching for that one version.

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

ISSN Links to an external site.s identify journals, magazines, and other periodicals. An ISSN can also help distinguish between two serials of the same title.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

DOIs Links to an external site. identify digital files, such as PDFs or HTML articles.

Accession Number

Accession numbers Links to an external site. are specific to a particular index or database. They are the number given to the item (or sometimes to the record for the item) when it was acquired.