Information Literacy Glossary
Term in Term in English English Definition Arabic To make a word or phrase shorter by using only some of the letters For example: or Daniel becomes Dan – Library يختصر Abbreviate becomes Lib. – Information becomes Info.
A brief summary of the points in an article مستخلص Abstract
Relating to schools, colleges and universities, or connected with studying and thinking, not أكادٌمً Academic with practical skills
A word formed from initial letters of a name. For example: Virginia Commonwealth University becomes VCU – United Nations أحرف استهاللٌه Acronym Educational and Scientific Organization becomes UNESCO.
Section of a book containing supplementary materials such as tables or maps الملحق Appendix
The persons reached by print, electronic or المستفيذين Audience broadcast media Includes compilers, editors, and composers in addition to the main personal and corporate المؤلف Author authors who are responsible for a work An accepted source of information or advice or an expert on a subject الخبٌر – الثقة Authority
A particular tendency or inclination, esp. one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a التحيز Bias question; prejudice
A list of citations or references to books or periodical articles on a particular topic. Bibliographies can appear at the end of a book, قائمت المراجع Bibliography journal, or encyclopedia article, or in a separate publication.
المتن The principal part of a speech or document, )الجزء األصلً Body (of text) minus introduction, conclusion, indexes, etc فً النص(
A form of literary criticism in which a book is استعراض .analyzed based on content, style, and merit الكتاب Book Review
Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR and NOT (otherwise known as Boolean operators) to limit, widen, or define your search. For example: if you were searching for information on the beaches at Al Wakra, you could try “Wakra OR beach” which might get البحث البولٌنً Boolean Search many results, but they will probably not be ) المنطقً (
useful. “Wakra AND beach” will give you less results, but they will be more specific. “Wakra NOT beach” will also give you more specific results but would not have any that included the word “beach.”
To look through casually or without a system or plan ٌتصفح Browse
In the Library of Congress system, which is the one used at VCUQ, it is a combination of numbers and letters that is used to show Call Number where a book is located in a library رقم الطلب
For example: NK2119 .R78 2001 or PN1995 .9 .E96 2005
A citation is a reference or footnote to an item (such as a book or periodical article.) It contains the author, title, date of publication, and any other information needed to locate استشهاد مرجعً Citation the item. It can be located within or at the end of the text.
Any of various systems for arranging books and other materials, esp. according to subject or تصنٌف Classification format
A carefully selected list of words and phrases, المفردات المقٌدة which are used to tag units of information so ) المصطلحات Controlled that they may be more easily retrieved in a المستخدمة فً Vocabulary search. For example: Kids for ( Kids – Children البحث ( – Youngsters )
Anything that provides the basis for confidence, belief, or gives credit to a persoe’s sretieedals academic or professional work المؤهالث
A standard of judgment or criticism; a rule or Criterion (plural principle for evaluating or testing something المعٌار/ المعاٌٌر is criteria)
New; present; most recent الحالً – الجاري Current - االحدث A long piece of writing about a particular subject that is done to earn an advanced رسالة /اطروحة Dissertation degree at a university جامعٌة
Pertaining to right and wrong conduct أخالقي Ethical
To judge or determine the significance, worth, or quality of work ٌُق ٌم Evaluate
A complete article, book or other piece of writing النص الكامل Full Text
A technique for searching a computer-stored document or database in which a search البحث عن النص engine examines all of the words in that الكامل Full-text Search document or database matching search words
supplied by the user
Can be a list at the end of a book, encyclopedia, etc. that indicates by author, title and/or subject the location of information within the book or encyclopedia. It can also be a tool that arranges (by author, title, or الكشاف xetieI subject) citations to articles in a selected group of periodicals.
A service in which materials can be either actually sent from one location to another, or تبادل اإلعارة بٌن in the case of periodical articles, book chapters المكتبات Interlibrary Loan or other short pieces, may be delivered electronically
A type of periodical on a particular subject which contains signed scholarly articles. Journals are usually published by academic or association presses and include bibliographies مجلت أكاديميت Journal
A term used in electronic searches that captures the essence of the topic of a الكلمت المفتاحيه Keyword document so exactly the right information can be found. For example: use “Doha” iesteati of Qatar if you want information on the city or “Nikoe”
instead of camera if you want information on
that brand.
Permitted by law; lawful قانىني legal
An organized listing of all the resources of a library فهرس المكتبت library satalog
الفهرس المتاح This abbreviation for Online Public Access على الخط المباشر Catalog refers to the online database of )الفهرس OPAC materials held by a library or group of libraries اإللكترونً (
A written list or description of only the most )اإلطار العام( Outliee important parts of an essay, speech, plan, etc
A restatement of a text or passage giving the meaning in another way; rewording For example: after the first Asian Cup semi- fieal, someoee posteti oe twitter, “Korea lost, x'm sick.” Aeother way to say that woulti be, “x يعيذ الصياغت Paraphrase am so upset that Korea lost that game that I feel sick.” Or “x am really upset that Korea lost that game.”
A process by which a scholarly work (such as a paper or a research proposal) is checked by a
group of experts in the same field to make sure االعتماد االكادٌمً Peer Review it meets the necessary standards before it is
published or accepted
Materials published at regular intervals (at least 3 times a year) and intended to be continued indefinitely. Examples of periodicals دوريت Periodical include magazines, journals, and newsletters.
Using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to that person السرقت األدبيت mlagiarism
A way of looking at things that is influenced by وجهة نظر Point of View an existing opinion, attitude or judgment Fundamental, authoritative documents relating to a subject, used in the preparation of ,a later work, e.g., letters, diaries, court cases مصادر أساسيت mrimary yources etc.
The marks (such as periods, exclamation points, question marks and commas) in a piece of writing that make its meaning clear and that عالمات الترقٌم muectuadoe separate it into sentences, clauses, etc
A special skill, type of experience or knowledge that makes someone suitable to do a particular المؤهالت Qualificadoes job or activity or to serve as an expert
Dependable in achievement, accuracy, honesty, etc جذير بالثقت Reliable
A logical series of steps for planning and preparing an efficient way to collect the most استراتٌجٌة البحث Research ytrategy useful information on a given topic
The full range of someoee or somethieg’s المجال ycope view, outlook, operation, etc A set of words or a phrase that is used to search and locate or retrieve a specific piece of عبارة البحث Search String information or file from a database or a set of documents State or express in a concise form ي ل خ ص yummariue
A word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another in the language, as joyful, المرادف yyeoeym elated, glad
A reference work that groups words with ,similar meanings (in contrast to a dictionary معجم المصطلحات Thesaurus (which contains definitions and pronunciations )المكنز(
The addition of a symbol such as an asterisk or question mark to the root of a word to find records that contain different forms of that word in a database ”For example: typing forest* ie the “yearch اقتطاع الكلمة Truncation box in an electronic database would find records containing the words forest, forestry, forests, forested, etc
Sources for definitions:
Definitions in this glossary came from the following websites and webpages: http://answers.yahoo.com/ http://dictionary.bridge.org/dictionary/british/academic_1 http://dictionary.reference.com http://www.learnersdictionary.com www.library.tudelft.nl/tulib/glossary/index.htm http://www.library.illinois.edu/learn/basics/glossary.html http://www.wiktionary.org/ www3.uakron.edu/library/instruction/glossary.htm
Aknowledgements:
Jane Birks, Assistant Professor and librarian, first conceived and wrote the glossary while she was at Zayed University.
The Arabic translation of the glossary was completed by Eman Mazhar (VCUQatar) with some additional input by and Jooza Al Marri from Education City Central Library, Doha.
Miriam Achenbach Reference and Instruction Librarian, VCUQatar and Carol Hansen, Director of Libraries also from VCUQatar undertook further coordination of Arabic translation. This work was initiated from discussions at ILN.