Abstract
A summary of the contents of a book or article
Advanced Search
A way to add fields to an initial search in order to return more/more relevant results
American Psychological Association (APA) Style
A writing style and format for academic documents that is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences. It is described in the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), which is titled the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
Annotated Bibliography
This is a list of citations (with annotations) for various books and articles used when writing a paper. An annotation is a short summary and/or critical evaluation of a source.
Article
A written piece contained in a journal or magazine that can be used as a source.
Bibliography
A list of the books and/or articles referred to in an academic paper.
Boolean Operator
Simple words (AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT) used as conjunctions in searching to combine or exclude keywords. The purpose is to retrieve more accurate and usable results.
Citation
A reference to a published source
Guided Research
A program in the NSCC Library where students are invited to make an appointment for specific research assistance. This is a process that is initiated by sending an email to library@northweststate.edu
Database
A structured set of data in the online environment that contain (among other things) scholarly journal articles and other documents
eBook
Book publications made readable in digital form can be acceptable sources for some papers and assignments, depending on the instructor and sometimes the discipline.
Ebsco
A leading provider of research databases, e-journals, magazine subscriptions, ebooks and discovery service for academic libraries, Ebsco is the provider of many of the OhioLINK database content
Field
A section of a source's record that can be searched or used to identify/verify information
Full-text
The complete contents of an article, and what students are most often looking for in databases
Index
An alphabetical list of names, subjects, etc., with references to the places where they occur in a book or periodical
Information Literacy
According the Association of College and Research Libraries, information literacy is the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use the needed information for a wide range of purposes."
In-text Citation
A form of citing in which the author and date or author and page number appear in the paragraph where the reference occurs
Journal
The commonly-used term to refer to a peer-reviewed publication used in academic research and writing
Keyword
An informative word used to search catalogs and databases
Limiters
Words to exclude the retrieval of unwanted search results (can also be thought of as "filters")
Modern Language Association (MLA) style
A writing style and format for academic documents that is commonly used for citing sources within the field of liberal arts and humanities
Monograph
A work of writing (in contrast to reference works) on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author, and usually on a scholarly subject
Open Access
A mechanism by which information is distributed online, free of cost or other barriers and possibly with the addition of an open license applied to promote reuse
Parenthetical Citation
Type of citation included when a line of text is taken directly from another source and placed within the paper or is used in your research project, but is rephrased, or paraphrased, in your own words
Peer Review
Evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field
Permalink/Persistent URL
A permanent static hyperlink to a particular web page or entry in a blog
Phrase Searching
Searching for two or more words as an exact phrase; unless otherwise specified, most databases will assume the Boolean operator AND, meaning that all words must be present to return a result but they won't necessarily be the exact phrase)
Primary Source
Documents, images or artifacts that provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning an historical topic of research and/or created around the same time as the event
Record
Method of keeping information about books, journals, physical objects, and library users in an organized system
Reference
Can refer to either 1) a location in the library with reference books or 2) the act of assisting students in finding the information they need
Search
The method used to locate information physically, in the library catalog, or online
Search Strategy
A well thought-out approach and plan to locating information needed to complete an assignment
Secondary Source
One that was created later by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions pertaining to the research
Serials
Publications that come out regularly (print or online)
Subject Heading
A specific word or phrase used to find and organize books and articles by topic
Tertiary Source
An index or textual consolidation of primary and secondary sources (ex. bibliographies, indexes, abstracts, encyclopedias)
Thesis Statement
A sentence that expresses the main idea of a research paper
Truncation
A search technique used in databases in which a word ending is replaced by a symbol
Wildcard
A term for an advance search technique that can be used to maximize search results (the two most common are * and ?)