Glossary

This glossary defines selected words, phrases and acronyms used in Pilot: your information navigator. Online dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopaedias, and directories may be found in the ECU Library Catalogue, for example:

English language dictionaries:
Macquarie Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary

Subject specific encyclopaedias:
Encyclopedia of human nutrition
Encyclopedia of management
Encyclopedia of software engineering
International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences

Find terms beginning with:

S

Scholarly

Of, relating to, or characteristic of scholars or scholarship: scholarly pursuits; a scholarly edition with footnotes. Academic; learned.

Search statement

The keywords and connecting operators (ie Boolean operators) that are typed into a database to retrieve information.

Search term

The words used in a search for information.

Search tools

General term for resources that enable you to identify and obtain different types of publications. For example: Library catalogues, databases, Internet search engines or subject directories.

Secondary source

Information about original information which has usually been selected or modified for a particular purpose or audience.

Spine

Something that resembles or suggests a backbone, as: the hinged back of a book.

Standards

Recommendation or specifications on quality, safety, dimensions, codes of practice, methods of testing, symbols and terminology.

Subject heading

Keywords used in the description of a topic. A subject heading is a word or phrase which is assigned to an item to describe its subject content. ECU Library uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).

Subscription

An agreement to receive or be given access to electronic texts or services, especially over the Internet.

Synonym

A word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word or other words in a language.

Syntax

The pattern of formation of sentences or phrases in a language.

Synthesise

Combine so as to form a more complex product.