Like all disciplines, information management has terminology that might be new to you. It also has familiar terms that might have unfamiliar meanings. This glossary will help you grasp the vocabulary of information management.
Access to some of these resources is restricted is restricted to those who are on campus, registered with the University Libraries.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M NO P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Abstract - Holdings -- Index - PubMed In-Process Citations -- Reference Collection - World Wide Web
Index - a resource that provides access to units within a larger source, such as articles within a journal or chapters within a book; commonly refers to specifically to print indexes (online indexes are called databases); abstracting sources like Biological Abstracts may also be referred to as indexes, though they are better defined as abstracts.
Index Medicus - the print counterpart of MEDLINE; the Mulford Health Sciences Library has Index Medicus (with some title changes) back to 1880.
Information commons – physical space, resources, and services provided jointly by a library and the computer support department, providing one-stop help for information needs and computer problems. Current renovations on Carlson Library’s information commons should be completed by Fall Semester 2007.
Information management - skills and techniques used to identify gaps in one's knowledge, select and use appropriate resources to find quality information to fill those knowledge gaps. This is also referred to as "information literacy" or "life-long learning."
Interlibrary loan – also called interlibrary services, interlibrary loan is a library service that will get material (books, dissertations, articles, etc.) that you need that we don’t have at UT from a library that has it. [Health Science Campus –- Main Campus]
Internet - a world-wide network of computer networks. "Internet" is a proper noun, so it is always capitalized. Do not confuse with "intranet," which is a restricted-access network based on Internet protocols. See also World Wide Web.
Internet Explorer - see browser
ISBN – International Standard Book Number; a unique identifying number for a book; used by book stores as well as libraries; if a book is available in paperback and hardback, the paperback ISBN will be different than the hardback, even though the contents are the same
ISSN – International Standard Serial Number; a unique identifying number for a journal; an online version of a journal may have a different ISSN number than the print version
Journal - a scholarly periodical that publishes articles in segments called issues; issues make up volumes. In the University Libraries, journal issues can be current (unbound), bound, and online. Contrast with magazine; see also online journal.
Keyword search - see word search
Knowledgebase - A database designed for retrieving directly applicable knowledge, commonly used to describe clinical resources such as PIER [Connect] and UpToDate [Connect].
Levels of evidence – in evidence-based practice, not all information is created equal. For example, generally speaking, research studies provide stronger evidence than does an opinion piece; and a randomized control trial provides stronger evidence than a cohort study. The comparative strength of evidence is described in terms of levels of evidence. For more information about the levels of evidence and how they relate to clinical queries, see Duke University Medical Center and UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries Introduction to Evidence Based Medicine Types of Questions and Studies page.
License – legal document that determines how a resource (usually an online resource) can be used, such as who can have access, whether off-campus access is allowed, how many people can access it at any one time, etc.
Magazine – a non-scholarly periodical, such as Time, BusinessWeek, or Rolling Stone; usually magazines are on shiny paper, have photographs, and have articles that do NOT have reference lists. Contrast with journal
Medical informatics - use of computers in the practice of medicine, ranging from clinical systems, information resources, telemedicine, etc.
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) - the main controlled vocabulary used in the U.S. National Library of Medicine databases, including MEDLINE. MeSH is highly structured and lends itself to very powerful search techniques.
MEDLINE - the premier medical database in the U.S., produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The database is made available through many vendors with many interfaces - EBSCOhost, Ovid, PubMed, SilverPlatter - but the data underlying these is the same. It covers 1966 to the present. The version of MEDLINE primarily supported by the Library is PubMed. [Instructional Materials -- Connect]
Monograph - a resource that is not part of a series; books are commonly monographs; compare with a serial.
OhioLINK - the statewide network of academic and research libraries in Ohio, including college, university, and community college libraries. OhioLINK provides access to a number of databases, online journals, and the OhioLINK Central Catalog. For more information, see the OhioLINK Web site.
OhioLINK Catalog - a catalog containing the combined holdings of all OhioLINK libraries; it includes an online borrowing features for registered users of OhioLINK libraries. [Instructional Materials -- Connect]
OLDMEDLINE - Searchable citation data from before 1966; available in PubMed and through OhioLINK [Connect]. Currently OLDMEDLINE covers 1950-1965. It does not include abstracts and does not use contemporary medical subject headings, so that can make searching a little difficult.
Online catalog - an electronic resource that provides access to materials within a single library's or group of libraries' collections, comparable to a card catalog but far more powerful. Online catalogs typically include books, journal titles, and audiovisuals. Occasionally, they will index book chapters, but they never index journal articles; databases index articles.
Online journal - a journal that provides the full-text of articles available in electronic form, most commonly on the Web. Most online journals have a print counterpart, but some are available only online. [Instructional Materials]
Open access – a trend in scholarly publishing in response to increasing journal subscription prices, open access is a publishing model of immediate online access to published articles, free of charge. For more information on open access, see Peter Stuber’s (of Earlham College) Open Access Overview
PDF - (Portable Document Format) a commonly used and preferred file format for online journals; when the file is printed, it looks just like the article in the print journal.
Peer review – a process by which experts review an article manuscript to determine if it should be published in a particular journal; usually the reviewers do not know who the authors are, and the authors don’t know who the reviewers are. The quality of articles published in journals that use peer-review (called peer-review journals, of course) are perceived to be of higher quality that those published in a journal that does not use peer review.
Periodicals – materials that come out periodically, such as journals, magazines, and newspapers
PICO - In evidence-based practice, the acronym PICO stands for Patient/Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome; it is used as a guide for developing a clinical question that can be answered by the published literature.
PREMEDLINE - see PubMed In-Process Citations
Presentation software - software that assists in the creation of 35-mm slides, overheads, and electronic presentations; PowerPoint is one of the most commonly used presentation software packages.
PsycINFO - a database that indexes the psychology literature; same thing as PsycLIT; the print version is called Psychological Abstracts. [Instructional Materials -- Connect]
PubMed - a version of MEDLINE provided by the National Library of Medicine. Originally designed to link the literature to genetic sequence data, it is now freely available on the Web. [Instructional Materials-- Connect]
PubMed In-Process Citations - formerly known as PREMEDLINE, this is a group of citations in PubMed that have not yet been included in MEDLINE. Once a citation has been indexed and added to the MEDLINE database, it is deleted from the In-Process subset. Citations that are in-process are not indexed using MeSH, so search them with a textword search.
Contact Mulford Reference Assistance at (419) 383-4218 or MulfordReference@utoledo.edu. Chat and IM reference are also available.
