Summit on Serials in the Digital Environment

Glossary

Aggregator-Neutral Record. An OPAC record that is separate from the print that covers all versions distributed by multiple providers of the same online serial on one record. The aggregator-neutral record was defined by CONSER in 2003.

Administrative Metadata. Information documenting the life cycle of an electronic resource, including data about ordering, acquisition, maintenance, licensing, rights, ownership, and provenance.

CONSER Database. The set of authenticated serial records input/created or otherwise introduced to the OCLC database by CONSER members. Although some or all CONSER records reside in the local databases of CONSER institutions, maintenance is performed on CONSER records residing on OCLC, making that the authoritative set of CONSER records. The CONSER database is also made available for purchase from LC's Cataloging Distribution Service. The database contains over one million records for serials in all formats.

CrossRef. A project which facilitates linking from cited references to full text on publisher websites. CrossRef uses the DOI to transmit citation information from which links are generated. (Source: "E-journals: access and management" Library Technology Reports http://www.techsource.ala.org)

Digital Library Federation (DLF).  A consortium of libraries and related agencies that is providing leadership for identifying standards and "best practices" for digital collections and network access; coordinating leading-edge research-and-development in libraries' use of electronic-information technology; and helping start projects and services that libraries need but cannot develop individually. The DLF operates under the administration umbrella of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). (Source: DLF homepage: http://www.diglib.org/)

DOI (Digital Object Identifier). The Digital Object Identifier is a means of persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property (a creation) on a digital network, irrespective of its current location. (Source: International DOI Foundation http://www.doi.org)

Electronic Resource Management System (ERM). Electronic Resource Management is a system encompassing a wide range of functions throughout the electronic resource life cycle, including but not limited to ordering, acquisition, maintenance and renewal processes, the generation and maintenance of discovery tools such as e-resource web pages, and recording and presentation of license information such as authorized users and permitted uses. (Source: Tim Jewell, Overview of the DLF Electronic Resource Management Initiative http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/DLF-eresource-management.html)

Federated Search Tools. Cross-database search tools that can search multiple catalogs, online databases, search engines, or commercial databases. They can often merge and de-duplicate results and provide unified access to a variety of information resources. (Source: dmoz open directory project)

Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records (FRBR). FRBR is the product of a study undertaken following the 1990 Stockholm Seminar on Bibliographic Records "to delineate in clearly defined terms the functions performed by the bibliographic record with respect to various media, various applications, and various user needs." FRBR does so by means of a conceptual model that identifies and defines: (1) entities of interest to users of bibliographic records; (2) their attributes; and (3) the relationships that operate between them. (Source: Ed Jones, FRBR summary for Summit) 

ISSN Register: the international database of registered ISSN assignments. Each of the bibliographic records contains ISSN authority elements (ISSN - key title - abbreviated key title) and other bibliographic elements such as supplementary information, frequency of publication, language, other forms of the title, place of publication, publisher, and links to other serials. ISSN records are available in MARC format. The database is updated on a weekly basis and has an annual growth of between 40,000 and 60,000 ISSN (unique records for publications); around 80,000 modifications are made each year. 1,104,010 ISSN have been assigned by the ISSN network. Additional statistics are available from http://www.issn.org:8080/English/pub/tools/statistics

MARC. The acronym for MAchine-Readable Cataloging. It defines a data format that emerged from a Library of Congress-led initiative that began thirty years ago. It provides the mechanism by which computers exchange, use, and interpret bibliographic information, and its data elements make up the foundation of most library catalogs used today. MARC became USMARC in the 1980s and MARC 21 in the late 1990s... MARC 21 has been mapped to the following metadata standards: MODS, Dublin Core, MARC Character Sets to UCS/Unicode, Digital Geospatial Metadata ... The following metadata standards have been mapped to MARC 21: MODS, Dublin Core, UNIMARC to MARC21, ONIX, Digital Geospatial Metadata to MARC (Source: MARC Standards home page: http://www.loc.gov/marc/)

MARCXML. An XML schema that uses MARC content designators.

Metasearch Searching across several search engines simultaneously. See also Federated Search Tools.

METS. (Metadata Encodeing & Transmission Standard ) A standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata about objects within a digital library, expressed using XML. METS is being developed by the Digital Library Federation (DLF) and is maintained by the Library of Congress (Source: http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/).  

MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema). MODS is intended to be able to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as to enable the creation of original resource description records. It includes a subset of MARC fields and uses language-based tags rather than numeric ones, in some cases regrouping elements from the MARC 21 bibliographic format. MODS is expressed using the XML schema language of the World Wide Web Consortium. The standard is maintained by the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress with input from users. (Source: MARC Standards home page: http://www.loc.gov/marc/)

OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative's Protocol for Metadata Harvesting). A protocol created to facilitate discovery of resources distributed in many repositories or locations. The OAI-PMH achieves this by providing a simple, yet powerful framework for metadata harvesting. Harvesters can incrementally gather records contained in OAI-PMH repositories and use them to create services covering the content of several repositories. (Source: Herbert Van de Sompel, Jeffrey A. Young, Thomas B. Hickey "Using the OAI-PMH . . . Differently." D-Lib Magazine 9, nos. 7/8 (2003))

ONIX for Serials. Standard format for communicating information pertaining to libraries' subscriptions to serial titles and related products (packages, aggregations, online services, etc.). (Source: Priscilla Caplan, summary for the summit: NISO EDItEUR Joint Working Party on the Exchange of Serials Subscription Information (JWP))

Open Access. A publication model where in neither readers nor a reader's institution are charged for access to articles or other resources. Users are free to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright … should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited (Source: Budapest Open Access Initiative http://www.soros.org/openaccess/index.shtml) Definitions of open access also often include the provision that the article or resource will be deposited in an open access repository committed to long-term preservation.

Open Archives Initiative (OAI). The funded program which supports the OAI Metadata Harvesting Protocol, a protocol for harvesting metadata about resources residing in separate repositories. (Source: Open Archives Initiative home page http://www.openarchives.org/organization/index.html)

OpenURL. OpenURL is an "actionable" URL that transports resource metadata. OpenURL standard is designed to support access from an information resource (source)
to library service components (targets). A link resolver parses the elements of an OpenURL and provides the appropriate services that have been identified by the library. A source is generally a bibliographic citation or bibliographic record representing a work that can be used to generate an OpenURL. A target is a resource or service that helps satisfy user's information need. Examples include full-text repositories; abstracting, indexing, and citation databases; online library catalogs; and other Web resources and services (e.g., local ILL form, amazon.com). (Source: Steve Shadle, Electronic Serials Cataloging Workshop)

Portal. Tool or set of tools for organized knowledge discovery that assists identification and selection of appropriate target resources; provides federated searching and information retrieval of descriptive metadata from multiple, diverse target resources, including but not limited to commercial or licensed electronic resources, databases, Web pages, and library catalogs; manages access to target resources and portal functionalities for authenticated user communities based on various user classes and roles. (Source: Excerpted from: Library of Congress Portals Applications Issues Group http://www.loc.gov/catdir/lcpaig/introduction.html)

Publication History Data Record. A data record that includes the complete pattern and published holdings of a particular title. It does not reflect the holdings of a particular library, but does express an 'ideal' complete run or set of a particular bibliographic entity. (Source: Task Force to Explore the Use of a Universal Holdings Record: Documents http://content.nsdl.org/dih1/PubPatt/index.html)

Reference Linking. Also called citation linking, provides a means to move from a citation in a database to the cited work. May mean links from cited references in an article or may refer to links from a citation to full text.

SCCTP (The Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program). SCCTP provides standardized training materials and trained trainers in the field of continuing resources. Rather than providing the actual training workshops, SCCTP relies on library associations, networks, and institutions to sponsor workshops, using SCCTP materials and a team of trainers. SCCTP is a part of the CONSER Program.

Separate Record Approach. Providing access for an electronic resource by creating a catalog record for it separate from the print version.

Single Record Approach. Providing OPAC access to an electronic resource through the catalog record for the print version. The URL, a note about the existence of an online version are given on the record for the print. CONSER established this as a "non-cataloging" option for members and provided guidelines for its use.

Universal Holdings Data Record see Publication History Data Record

XML (Extensible Markup Language). A simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere. (Source: W3C XML page http://www.w3.org/XML/)

XLM Schemas express shared vocabularies and allow machines to carry out rules made by people. They provide a means for defining the structure, content and semantics of
XML documents. (Source: W3C architecture domain page http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema)