A
- AACR2
- Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (2nd ed.); established in
1978 and revised in 1988. "These rules are designed for use in the construction
of catalogues and other lists in general libraries. The rules cover the
description of, and provision of, access points for all library materials commonly
collected."
- AALL
- American Association of Law Libraries.
- ABSTRACT
- A summary of an article, a book, a national news program,
etc.
- ACCESSION NUMBER
- Before automation, a unique identification number
assigned to each volume when it was added to the library collection; barcode
now serves this function.
- ACIS
- Academic Computing and Information Services.
- ACORN
- Vanderbilt's automated library system, including an online
catalog and circulation, acquisitions, and cataloging functions.
- ACQUISITIONS
- The process of acquiring materials for a library,
either through purchase or as gifts. In the Heard Library, this process
is a function of the Order Services unit of Resource Services, Law Library,
and Biomedical Library.
- ACRL
- Association of College and Research Libraries (a division of
ALA).
- ADAPTIVE WORKSTATION
- A computer designed to accommodate users with
disabilities.
- ADDED COPIES
- Duplicate copies of titles already in the
collection.
- ADDED ENTRY
- An entry additional to the main entry, by which an item
is represented in a catalog. This is an access point, such as editor, subject, etc.,
which can be used in a search. For example, a book edited by John Smith would
have "Smith, John" as an added entry.
- ADDED VOLUME
- Pieces of a book set that are received after the
initial piece is cataloged. For example, volume 2 of a set that is received
after volume 1 is cataloged.
- AGRARIAN
- A group of twelve writers who discussed the benefits
of an agricultural economy published as "I'll Take My Stand" in 1930. The original
manuscript and papers of the members are part of Special Collections.
- ALA
- American Library Association.
- ANNEX
- Remote storage facility of the library system; located
approximately two miles from campus.
- APPLICATION
- A computer program created to perform a certain task for the user;
for example, word processing or e-mail.
- APPROVAL PLAN
- An agreement between a library and a publisher in which
the publisher supplies all current books published in subjects specified by
the library. Books received on these plans are called approvals.
- ARL
- Association of Research Libraries.
- ASCII
- American Standard Code for Information Interchange; a
standard that enables computer files and text, such as electronic mail messages,
to be used on many different systems. Word processing programs can usually
save files in an ASCII or binary (their default) format. ASCII is used by most
microcomputers and printers, and, because of this, text-only files can be
transferred easily between different kinds of computers.
- ASERL
- Association of Southeastern Research Libraries.
- ATHENA
- A union catalog of the online catalogs of some members of the
Nashville Area Library Alliance. Patrons can access this catalog using a single
search.
- ATLA
- American Theological Library Association.
- AUL
- Associate University Librarian; occasionally referred to
as Assistant University Librarian.
- AUTHENTICATION
- Verification of identity as a security measure.
Passwords and PIN numbers are forms of authentication.
- AUTHORITY FILE
- A listing of standardized forms of name and subject
entries used as headings in the catalog and the authorities, or sources, on
which they are based.
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