Home → Cataloging in NC Cardinal → Appendices → Glossary
Last Updated 05/11/2023
AACR2- (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition) a set of rules for constructing catalog records for the description of bibliographic resources (e.g. books) and access points (e.g. people) that support the organization, searching, sorting, and usability of information resources.
Authorized Access Point- a standardized access point representing an entity. Usually listed in the 1XX field of an authority record.
Carrier- a physical medium in which data, sound, images, etc., are stored.
Carrier type- the type of resource that carries/holds the information stored on/in a resource. Recorded in the 338 field in bibliographic records encoded in MARC. Terminology is defined by a controlled vocabulary in RDA.
Content type- the type of information stored on/in a resource. Recorded in the 336 field in bibliographic records encoded in MARC. Terminology is defined by a controlled vocabulary in RDA.
Controlled Vocabulary- an organized arrangement of words and phrases used to index content and/or to retrieve content through browsing or searching. It typically includes preferred and variant terms and has a defined scope or describes a specific domain. Example: authorized subject headings (Library of Congress Subject Headings).
Diacritic- a sign, such as an accent or cedilla, which when written above or below a letter indicates a difference in pronunciation from the same letter when unmarked or differently marked.
FRBR- (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) a 1998 recommendation of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to restructure catalog databases to reflect the conceptual structure of information resources. FRBR is the basis for the development of RDA.
GMD- (General Material Designation) a term used to designate the material type of a resource. This terminology is no longer supported in RDA. It is found in some older records in the $h in the 245 field.
ILS- (Integrated Library System) also known as a library management system (LMS), a system for a library used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.
MARC- (Machine Readable Cataloging) an encoding standard used to make catalog records created using a variety of standards (including AACR2 and RDA) readable, searchable, sortable, and displayable in OPACs.
Media type- the type of device needed to access the information on/in a resource. Recorded in the 337 field in bibliographic records encoded in MARC. Terminology is defined by a controlled vocabulary in RDA.
Monograph- A monograph is a book, pamphlet or document that is complete in itself; it's the opposite of a periodical or serial publication which are continuing resources. Not to be confused with a Monographic Set.
Monographic Set- A group of books that cannot function independently. They may be published as a complete set or in installments, but the set has a finite end (e.g. an encyclopedia set). Not to be confused with a Series or Serial.
OCLC- (Online Computer Library Center) an organization that provides libraries and librarians with tools to share cataloging and other information organization duties. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest OPAC in the world.
OPAC- (Online Public Access Catalog) an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries.
RDA- (Resource Description and Access) a standard for descriptive cataloging initially released in June 2010, providing instructions and guidelines on formulating bibliographic and authority records.
Relationship designator- a term or phrase that indicates the nature of a relationship between two entities.
Serial- a continuing resource issued in a succession of discrete parts, usually bearing numbering, that has no predetermined conclusion. Journals, periodicals, and magazines are all types of serials.
Series- A series is made up of two or more monographs that are tied together in some way, often by subject matter. Series are so important in library catalogs that we use two different fields (490 and 8XX), one of which links to an authority record (8XX). Not to be confused with a Monographic Set or a Serial.
Z39.50- an international standard client–server, application layer communications protocol for searching and retrieving information from a database over a TCP/IP computer network. It acts as a portal for finding importable MARC records created by other institutions.