Glossary
Cataloging and Internet Terminology
ACCESS METHOD: The rules that manage how all the computers and other devices on a network can send information though the same physical medium in an orderly fashion.
ACCESS POINT: A name, term, code, etc., under which a bibliographic record may be searched and identified. See also Heading.
ACCESS PRIVILEGES: The privileges to open and make changes to directories and their contents; they are given to or withheld from users.By setting access privileges, you can control access to confidential information stored in directories on a server.
ACCESS PROVIDER: A company providing a computer system that connects your computer to the Internet.
ACCOUNT: You are said to have an account on a host computer, or with an online information system, when you have registered with its administrators to use the system. There are usually restrictions on who can register, and registration may involve a fee. When you get an accout, you are issued a user name (userid) and a password that you use to log into the system. Some guest or anonymous accounts, set up for public access to some Internet computers, do not require prior registration, but limit access to a few file directories and allowed commands.
ACK (Acknowledgement): Most data transfer protocols return an acknowledgement message, indicating that a block of data sent has been successfully received. If a NAK (negative acknowledgment) is received, the block is resent; the next block to be transferred will not be sent until an ACK is received. Checksum verification is used. These acknowledgments are machine-to-machine messages, not something that the user sees.
ACRONYM: A word formed from the initial letter or letters of the main parts of a compound term, such as ROM (read-only memory).
ACTIVATE: To make a nonactive window active by clicking anywhere inside it.
ACTIVE WINDOW: The frontmost window on the desktop; the window where the next action will take place. An active window's title bar is highlighted.
ADDED ENTRY: An entry, additional to the main entry, by which an item is represented in a catalogue; a secondary entry. See also Main entry.
ADDRESS: Network addresses are usually of two types: (1) the
physical or hardware address of a network interface card; for ETHERNET
this 48-bit address might be 0260.8C00.7666. The hardware address is used
to forward PACKETS within a physical network. Fortunately, network users
do not have to be concerned about hardware addresses since they are automatically
handled by the networking software.
(2) The logical or INTERNET address is used to facilitate moving data
between physical networks. The 32-bit INTERNET address is made up of a
network number, a subnetwork number, and a host number. Each host computer
on the INTERNET, has a unique address.
ADDRESS RESOLUTION: Conversion of an INTERNET ADDRESS to the corresponding physical address.
ADDESSING: A scheme, determined by network protocols, for identifying the sending device and destination device for any given item of information traveling on a network.
ADMINISTRATOR: The person who sets up a network resource, registers users and their passwords, and maintains the resource.
ALERT: A warning or report of an error in the form of an alert box, a sound from the computer's speaker, or both.
ALERT BOX: A box that appears on the screen to give a warning or to report an error message. Its appearance is usually accompanied by a sound warning such as a beep.
ALIAS (n.): An alternate name used to invoke or identify a command, a network host, a list of users or some other applicable entity. (v.) To provide an entity with an alternate name.
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: The second part of a title proper that consists of two parts, each of which is a title; the parts are joined by "or", or its equivalent in another language (e.g., The tempest, or, The enchanted island.)
AMERICAN STANDARD CODE FOR INFORMATION INTERCHANGE: See ASCII
ANCHOR: An area within the content of a node which is the source or destination of a link . The anchor may be the whole of the node content. Typically, clicking a mouse on an anchor area causes the link to be followed, leaving the anchor at the opposite end of the link displayed. Anchors tend to be highlighted in a special way (always, or when the mouse is over them), or represented by a special symbol. An anchor may, and often does, correspond to the whole node. (also sometimes known as "span", "region", "button", or "extent").
ANONYMOUS FTP (File Transfer Protocol): The procedure of connecting to a remote computer, as an anonymous or guest user, in order to transfer public files back to your local computer.
ARCHIE: A network service used for locating files that are publicly accessible by anonymous FTP.
AREA: A major section of the bibliographic description, comprising data of a particular category or set of categories.
ARPA (Advanced Projects Research Agency): Former name of DARPA, the government agency that funded ARPANET and later the DARPA Internet.
ARPANET: A pioneering long haul network funded by ARPA. It served as the basis for early networking research as well as a central backbone during the development of the INTERNET. The ARPANET consists of individual PACKET switching computers interconnected by leased lines.
AUTHORING: A term for the process of writing a document. "Authoring" seems to have come into use in order to emphasize that document production involved more than just writing.
ASCII: Acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard that assigns a unique binary number to each text character and control character. ASCII code is used for representing text inside a computer and for transmitting text betweeen computers or between a computer and a peripheral device.
ASYNCHRONOUS: Not synchronized by a mutual timing signal or clock. Compare Synchronous.
ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSMISSION: A method of data transmission in which the receiving and sending devices don't share a common timer, and no timing data is transmitted. Each information character is individually synchronized, usually by the use of start and stop bits. The time interval between characters isn't necessarily fixed.
AUTHOR: See Personal author.
BACKBONE: A central network connecting other networks together.The NSF funds a backbone network for regional networks such NEARnet, CERFnet, and JVNCnet. Today there are alternate commercial backbones to the NSF backbone.
BANDWIDTH: The capacity of the transmission MEDIUM stated in bits per second or as a frequency.
BASEBAND: A transmission method in which a network uses its entire transmission frequency range to send a single communication or signal. Compare Broadband.
BAUD: (1) A unit of data transmission speed; the number of discrete signal-state changes (signal events) per second. Often, but not always, equivalent to bits per second. Compare bit rate. (2) The maximum speed at which data can be sent down a channel, such as a telephone line; often confused with the actual speed at which the data is transmitted between two computers, measured in bits per second.
BBS (Bulletin Board System): A computer system that others can communicate with for messaging, exchange of software and files, and other services such as games and distribution of data. Long the realm of hobbyists, BBS's are also used by government and educational institutions. Many are now indirectly connected to the Internet for mail services or directly connected for telnet and ftp.
BINARY FILE: Binary files are non-ASCII, non-text files where any combination of bits is possible in an 8-bit character. Binary files are usually executable program files or files used by application software.
BIT (b): A contraction of binary digit. The smallest unit of information that a computer can hold. The value of a bit (1 or 0) represents a simple two-way choice, such as yes or no, on or off, positive or negative, something or nothing.
BIT DENSITY: Number of bits that can be stored within a given physical area.
BIT MAPPED: A screen display in which the image on the screen is generated and refreshed using a binary matrix (bit map) at a specific location in memory.
BITNET (Because It's Time To Network): An academic and research network that supports email, mailing lists, and file transfer (but not ftp). It is largely a store-and-forward network based on IBM networking protocols. It is now part of the Corporation for Research and Networking (CREN) managed by EDUCOM. It consists of the BITNET network in the United States, NETNORTH in Canada, EARN in Europe, and various Asian and South American connections. It is not accessible from the Internet by either telnet or ftp, although email is exchanged through specific gateways that connect the networks.
BLOCK: Group of bits or characters that are transmitted as a unit.
BLOCKING FACTOR: Number of records in a block.
BOOLEAN SEARCH: A method of searching for information, often used in databases, online library catalogs, and Veronica using the Boolean operator "AND", "OR", "NOT", "NAND" (not and), and "NOR" (not or).
BLOCKING: The act of denying access to a network, computer system or function within a system. The term is also used to refer to the process of combining two or more Network Service Access Points (NSAPs) into one Network Protocol Data Unit (NPDU) for Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) networks.
BPS (Bits Per Second): The speed at which bits are transmitted over a communications medium.
BRIDGE: A device which routes traffic between LANs at the data link layer of the OSI model.
BROADBAND: A transmission method in which the network's range of transmission frequencies is divided into separate channels and each channel is used to send a different signal. Broadband transmission is often used to send signals of different kinds simultaneously, such as voice and data. Contrast with baseband.
BROWSER: A program which allows a person to read hypertext . The browser gives some means of viewing the contents of nodes, and of navigating from one node to another.
BUTTON: An anchor which is the source of a link . Often, but not always, represented on screen to look like a push-button.
BYTE (B): One byte, generally eight bits, though not on all systems.
C: The preferred programming language on UNIX systems, and so used on much of the Internet.
CABLE: An insulated bundle of wires with connectors on the ends. Examples are serial cables, disk drive cables and LocalTalk cables.
CARRIER: The background signal on a communication channel that is modified to carry information. Under RS-232-C rules, the carrier signal is equivalent to a continuous MARK (1) signal; a transition to 0 then represents a start bit.
CARD: An alternative term for a node in a system (e.g. HyperCard, Notecards) in which the node size is limited to a single page of a limited size.
CATALOGUE: 1. A list of library materials contained in a collection, a library, or a group of libraries, arranged according to some definite plan. 2. In a wider sense, a list of materials prepared for a particular purpose (e.g. an exhibition, catalogue, a sales catalogue).
CCITT: Abbreviation for Consultative Committee on International Telegraphy and Telephony, an international committee that sets standards and makes recommendations for international communication.
CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team): An Internet worm incident in Nov. 1988 prompted the formation of the CERT. The CERT provides education and training, conducts research, and responds to Internet computer security events. The CERT maintains an anonymous ftp site at cert.org.
CHIEF SOURCE OF INFORMATION: The source of bibliographic data to be given preference as the source from which a bibliographic description (or portion thereof) is prepared.
CLIENT: A program which requests services of another program. Normally, the browser is a client of a data server.
CLIENT-SERVER MODEL: A networking architecture in which a server provides a service to remote clients. When a gopher, such as, MARVEL Gopher contacts another gopher to access its file, the gopher with the files is acting as a server, and the MARVEL Gopher is acting as a client for its user. This is an example of the client-server model of computing.
COM: The highest-level Internet domain name used to identify commercial services.
COMPILER: 1. One who produces a collection by selecting and putting together matter from the works of various persons or bodies. 2. One who selects and puts together in one publication, matter from the works of one person or body. See also Editor.
COMPRESSION: Methods of reducing size of files or the bandwidth of transmittted information without (normally) altering the informational content. Files on anonymous ftp hosts are often stored in various compressed formats to reduce the storage space required. Text and many types of graphics can be compressed considerably in size.
COMPUTER FILE: A file (data and/or programs) encoded for manipulation by computer.
CONFIGURATION: (1) A general-purpose computer term that can refer to the way you have your computer set up. (2) The total combination of hardware components-central processing unit, video display device, keyboard and peripheral devices-that make up a computer system. (3) The software settings that allow various hardware components of a computer system to communicate with one another.
CONGESTION: Overcrowding that exceeds the capacity of a data communication path or a telecommunication service.
CORPORATE BODY: An organiztion or group of persons that is identified by a particular name and that acts, or may act, as an entity. Typical examples of corporate bodies are associations, institutions, business firms, nonprofit enterprises, governments, government agencies, religious bodies, local churches, and conferences.
CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check): An error-checking system used in transmission to detect if the data received has changed. A number is calculated based on the original data and included with the transmission. The number is recalculated at the receiving end and compared with the original number. If the two calculations differ, the data has changed.
CREN (Corporation for Research and Educational Networking): An organization formed in 1989 to provide network services for BITNET and CSNET users. CSNET is no longer operational.
CROSS-REFERENCE: See Reference.
CWIS (Campus-Wide Information System): A system for providing college or university information electronically over a network.
CYBERSPACE: The sensation of place without location, or space without physically, experienced while using global computer networks. The term was popularized by William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer.
DARPA (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency): This agency of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. DARPA funded the research for ARPAnet, which consisted of individual packet-switching computers interconnected by leased lines. This research eventually led to the development of today's Internet including the Berkeley version of UNIX and TCP/IP. In 1993 the agency once again became known as ARPA.
DATA SET NAME: See file name (Computer files).
DIAL-UP: Temporary connection between computers by a telephone link, usually with a modem. Unlike dedicated connections, dial-up connections are established only for the duration of the session.
DATABITS: In the stream of bits being sent from your computer to a peripheral device or another computer, the bits that contain meaningful information; distinguished from bits used to indicate that a character is about to start, has stopped, or is correct.
DATAGRAM: Using the TCP/IP suite of protocols, a datagram is a self-contained packet of information consisting of the data and a header, which tells where it came from, where it is going, what kind of data it contains, and its relation to any other datagrams being sent. This information is used to route the datagram from the source to the destination, where it is reassembled. Since the Internet is a packet-switched network, no prior communication or connection between systems is necessary.
DEFAULT: A value, action or setting that a computer system assumes, unless the user gives an explicit instruction to the contrary. Default values prevent a program from stalling or crashing if no value is supplied by the user.
DIALOG BOX: (1) A box that contains a message requesting more information from you. Sometimes the message warns you that you're asking your computer to do something it can't do or that you are about to destroy some of your information. In these cases, the message is often accompanied by a beep. (2) A box that a PC application displays to request information, or to report that it is waiting for a process to complete.
DIRECT ACCESS (Computer File): The use of computer files via carriers (e.g., disks, cassettes, cartridges) designed to be inserted into a computer or its auxiliary equipment by the user. See also Remote access (Computer files).
DIRECTORY: Files on many computer systems are grouped together in directories and subdirectories. Directories are called "folders" on some operating systems.
DIRECTORY SERVICE: A service which provides network addresses or userids of individuals, hosts, and services.
DISCUSSION GROUP: An ongoing exchange of messages about a topic. Listserv provides one mechanism for organization of discussion groups as mailing lists; Usenet newsgroups are another example, using a different format and protocol.
DISTRIBUTOR: An agent or agency that has exclusive or shared marketing rights for an item.
DNS (Domain Name System): A protocol, and a distributed system of databases and server programs (name servers), that translate human-readable names, for example, nic.ddn.mil., into numeric IP addresses. No single DNS nameserver contains information for all Internet hosts, but by accessing a hierarchy of nameservers, a local DNS program can resolve a name and route communication to an intended computer.
DOCUMENT: A term for a node on some systems (e.g. Intermedia). Sometimes used by others as a term for a collection of nodes on related topics, possibly stored or distributed as one. The prefered term in W3 documentation.
DOMAIN: The Internet naming scheme which consists of a hierarchical sequence of names, from the most specific to the most general (left to right), separated by dots, for example, nic.ddn.mil. Most often used to refer to the highest-level domains, such as, .edu, .com, .us, .uk. Technically, each part of a name is a domain.
DOMAIN NAME SERVER: A computer that converts INTERNET names, such as csugreen.UCC.ColoState.EDU or handel.CS.ColoState.EDU, to their corresponding INTERNET numbers, such as, 129.82.103.96 or 129.82.102.16.
DOWNLOAD, or DOWN LOADING: The transfer of files to your local computer from another, often larger, computer, using communications software and a modem.
DTE: Data Terminal Equipment, meaning the computer you use with a modem.
DUMB TERMINAL: A terminal which does nothing more by itself than to connect to another computer where the actual application software and storage reside. Before the mid-1970s when the personal computer revolution began, almost all terminals used were dumb terminals, connected to mainframe computers at data processing centers.
DUPLEX: Simultaneous transmission of signals in both directions.
EARN: European Academic and Research Network, a BITNET network.
EDITION (Computer File): All copies embodying essentially the same content and issued by the same entity.
EDITOR: One who prepares for publication an item not his or her own. The editorial work may be limited to the preparation of the item for the manufacturer, or it may include supervision of the manufacturing, revision (restitution), or elucidation of the content of the item, and the addition of an introduction, notes, and other critical matter. In some cases, it may involve the technical direction of a staff of persons engaged in creating or compiling the content of the item. See also Compiler.
EDU: The highest-level Internet domain name used to identify educational institutions.
EDUCOM: A nonprofit consortium of higher education institutions in the U.S. that promotes and manages information resources in the educational and research communities.
EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation): An orgnization established to address social and legal issues concerning computer networks and computer communications.
E-JOURNAL: A periodical distributed electronically by email.
ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD: A shared file where users can enter information for other users to read or download. Many bulletin boards are set up according to general topics and are accessible throughout a network.
ELECTRONIC MAIL (email): A network service that enables users to send and receive messages via computer.
ELEMENT: A word, phrase, or group of characters representing a distinct unit of bibliographic information and forming part of an area (q.v.) of the description.
ENTRY: A record of an item in a catalogue. See also Heading.
ENTRY WORD: The word by which an entry is arranged in the catalogue, usually the first word (other than an article) of the heading. See also Heading.
ETHERNET: An IEEE 802.3 standard using baseband contention access over coaxial cable and twisted-pair wires. This 10-million bit per second networking scheme was originally developed by Xerox Corporation. ETHERNET is widely used on campuses because it can network a wide variety of computers. It is not proprietary, and components are widely available from many commercial sources.
ETEXT: A document in electronic form.
EXTENT OF ITEM: The first element of the physical description area. It gives the number and the specific material designation of the units of the item being described and, in some cases, other indications of the extent (e.g., duration). See also Specific material designation.
FAQ: Abbreviation for Frequently Asked Question; a list of frequently asked questions (and their answers). Most mailing lists and all network news newsgroups provide FAQ postings on a regular basis.
FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface): An emerging standard for network technology based on fiber optics that has been established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). FDDI specifies a 100-million bit per second data rate. The access control mechanism uses token ring technology.
FETCH: A software program developed at Dartmouth College for the Macintosh which provides for user-friendly access to FTP.
FIBER OPTICS: High-speed data transmission using light through a flexible bundle of glass fibers.
FIELD: In databases or formatted messages, a portion of a record set aside for a particular type of data. For example, a database of members of an organizaton would have one record for each member, and the record could consist of a last name field, a first name field, and an email address field. Fields appear in the headers of electronic messages. There is a "To:" field, a "From:" field, and many more that are added by the mail delivery system.
FILE: (1) Any named, ordered collection of information stored on a disk. Application programs and operating systems on disks are examples of files. You make a file when you create text or graphics, give the material a name and save it to a disk; in this sense, file is synonymous with document. (2) For UNIX operating systems, an array of bytes; no other structure is implied by UNIX systems, as they even treat devices like files.
FILE, COMPUTER. See Computer file.
FILE NAME (Computer files): A designation used in a computer system to identify a file. Sometimes, a file name is called a "data set name." For external designations of a computer file, see Title proper.
FILE SERVER: A computer that stores files and provides network access to those files.
FILE TRANSFER: The copying of a file from one computer to another over a computer network or phone connection.
FINGER: A command that allows you to retrieve information about people or resources on another system. It uses the form "finger@site" in which case it returns details about the system and the users currently logged in. Or it uses the form "finger userid@site" in which case it reports more detailed information about the use, including any information the user has placed in a "plan" or "project" file.
FORMAT: In its widest sense, a particular physical presentation of an item.
FREENET: A community-based system that provides email and other services to members of a community. They are typically free to users and are funded through contributions. Many are members of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN).
FTP (File Transfer Protocol): The INTERNET standard high-level PROTOCOL for transferring files from one computer to another.
FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name): The complete, formal, unique domain name by which a host is identified within the Internet. At some sites with multiple hosts, an abbreviated name can be used locally, but the complete FQDN must be used when addressing mail from the outside. For example, the computer known as "library" at Northwestern University has an FQDN of "library.northwestern.edu".
GAME: An item or set of materials designed for play according to prescribed or implicit rules and intended for recreation or instruction. See also Kit.
GATEWAY: In general usage, a gateway is a system that provides a connection between different networks (for example, between BITNET and the Internet) and routes data between them, providing any conversion necessary if the networks use different network protocols.
Gb: A gigabit is equal to 10^9 (one billion) bits of information. Gbps is usually used to express a data transfer rate, as in 1 gigabit per second, or 1Gbps.
GB: Gigabyte. A unit of data storage size which represents approximately one billion bytes of information.
GENERAL MATERIAL DESIGNATION: A term indicating the broad class of material to which an item belongs (e.g., sound recording). See also Specific material designation.
GIF (Graphical Interchange Format): A computer bitmap graphics format, originally developed by CompuServe, but now widely used across the Internet and elsewhere. GIF provides highly compressed information in comparison to other bitmap graphics format.
GOPHER: Gopher is a protocol and programs for a menu-driven document delivery system that connects you to resources and sites all over the world. Gopher menu options can point to other gophers, telnet sites, text files, utilities, and other menus. They can also launch a search to do things, such as, look up the definition of a word, or find where a word occurs in a document. The beauty of gopher is that it formats all information in the same menu structure. You can easily track down items of interest, wherever they may be in the world.
HANDSHAKING: The exchange of status information between a DCE and a DTE used to control the transfer of data between them. The status information can be the state of signal connecting the DCE and the DTE, or it can be in the form of a character transmitted with the rest of the data.
HEADER: The portion of a PACKET, preceding the actual data, containing source and destination ADDRESSES and error-checking fields.
HEADING: A name, word, or phrase placed at the head of a catalogue entry to provide an access point. See also Access point.
HIERARCHICAL FILE SYSTEM: A method of storing files in a linear, branched, or nested fashion, with subdirectories and files branching off (or nesting within) a root directory.
HOST NAME: The portion of the fully qualified domain name that refers to a specific host computer. For example, in "library.northwestern.edu", "library" is the host name within the "northwestern.edu" domain.
HOST COMPUTER: In the context of networks, a computer that directly provides service to a user. In contrast to a network server, which provides services to a user through an intermediary host computer.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): Hypertext document format used by the World-Wide Web. Built on top of SGML. "Tags" are embedded in the text so that a certain place within an HTML document can be specified. HTML supports some national characters through special escape sequences. See also HTML+.
HTML+: A proposed new standard which will supersede HTML. It is a superset of HTML which is designed to extend the capabilities of the language to incorporate better support for multimedia objects in documents.
HTTP (Hypertext Text Transfer Protocol): A public domain application layer protocol which uses TCP to transfer text over the Internet and is used for the design of information systems using Hypertext Links (Hyperlinks). Connections are usually made via the Telnet command with a specific Internet port (socket) being identified. World Wide Web uses an HTTP-like system for creating its links.
HYPERMEDIA: MultiMedia Hypertext . HyperMedia and HyperText tend to be used loosely in place of each other. Media other than text typically include graphics, sound, and video.
HYPERTEXT: Text which is not constrained to be linear.
HYTELNET: A program developed by Peter Scott and others at the University of Saskatchewan that automates connection and lookup with a wide variety of Internet resources including library catalogs, CWIS, gophers, BBS's, database servers, WAIS servers, and much more. Available for DOS, Mac, VMS, UNIX, and Amiga systems.
IAB (Internet Architecture Board): Formerly known as the Internet Activities Board, this technical body oversees the work of the IETF and the IRTF.
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force): A group of volunteers who meet to work on the evolution of the Internet and its standards, operation, management, protocols, and architecture. The IETF meets three times a year and has many different working groups and agendas. There is no formal membership and each group's work depends on the concerned people who come to do it. Extensive minutes are kept and the proposals that develop are submitted to the IAB.
INDEX: Something which points at other data; a server facility which provides pointers to particular data as a function of a query; a table of contents of a book in hypertext form.
ITEM: A document or set of documents in any physical form, published, issued, or treated as an entity, and as such forming the basis for a single bibliographic description.
INTERACTIVE TALK: Some Internet systems (mostly UNIX systems) allow two users to hook directly together for an interactive conversation. Both people have to have a compatible version of the talk utility available on their system.
INTEREST GROUPS: Also known as special interest groups (SIGs). Traditionally used to describe mailing lists on the Internet, interest groups are organized, ongoing exchanges of messages that allow people with interest in a particular topic to share ideas and information on the topic via email.
INTERNAL: A link to a node in the same database.
INTERNET: The largest worldwide system of interconnected computer networks, capable of the exchange of messages and offering seamless connectivity for service, such as, remote login and file transfer. Today, the Internet is mainly composed of local and wide-area networks that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols for computer-to-computer communication; its technical standards are defined by an international cooperative committee known as the Internet Activities Board and the IAB's Internet Engineering Task Force. Other computer networks, which can exchange messages with computers on the Internet, but which cannot connect for services, such as, file transfer and remote login, can be considered part of an even larger network, sometimes referred to as the Matrix.
INTERNET ADDRESS: See IP ADDRESS.
INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP): Though the Internet is considered a "multi-protocol" network, the Internet Protocol remains the protocol-of-choice. The IP is a packet-switching protocol that provides a common layer over dissimilar connectionless networks. The IP defines a general set of rules for formatting and routing packets across the various networks on the Internet.
IP ADDRESS: Each computer connected to the Internet has its own unique IP address (and may have more than one), which is represented by a 32-bit numeric string of dotted decimal notation (which translates to four sets of numbers separated by periods). Though the IP address is used by the network computers, it is usually not necessary to know an IP address; your host computer automatically converts the human-readable DNS address that you enter to an IP address.
IP DATAGRAM: The basic unit of information passed across the INTERNET. An IP DATAGRAM is to the INTERNET as a hardware PACKET is to a physical network. It contains a source and destination ADDRESS along with data. Large messages are broken down into a sequence of IP DATAGRAMS.
IRTF (Internet Research Task Force): The IRTF is chartered by the Internet Architecture Board to consider Internet issues from a theoretical point of view. It has Research Groups, similar to IETF Working Groups, which are each tasked to research different topics. Where the IETF concentrates on creating practical, workable solutions, the IRTF takes the longer-range theoretical view.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network): An emerging digital telephone technology. ISDN combines voice and digital services in a single line. ISDN standards are specified by CCITT.
ISO (International Organization for Standardization): The organization responsible for creating the ISO/OSI protocols, that may eventually replace the current Internet protocols. The ISO members are the national standards organizations of the 89 member countries, including ANSI for the United States.
JOINT AUTHOR: A person who collaborates with one or more other persons to produce a work in relation to which the collaborators perform the same function. See also Shared responsibility.
KERMIT: A versatile and easy-to-use file transfer and terminal emulation program developed at Columbia University.
KILOBYTE: About one thousand characters (1.024 bytes); roughly one screenful's worth of data.
KIT: An item containing two or more categories of material, no one of which is identifiable as the predominant constituent of the item; also designated "multimedia item," (q.v.) See also Game.
LAN (Local Area Network): A network that connects computers in a relatively small area, usually in a building, and not over more than a few square kilometers. Because of the close proximity of the computers on a LAN, they offer efficient and high-speed communications. Contrast with WAN.
LINK: A relationship between two anchors, stored in the same or different database.
LISTSERV: Listserv, which stands for List Server, is an automated mailing-list distribution system. People with a common interest can subscribe to a Listserv mailing list and easily share information and ideas with others on the list. By addressing a message to Listserv, all other subscribers on the list receive the message; and conversely, any reply to such a message is received by all subscribers. You can subscribe to a Listserv by sending email to the computer that maintains it.
LOCATOR TABLE: An input device that produces coordinates of a position when a user-entered variable is matched against an array of predefined values.
LOGIN: The process of gaining command of a computer, usually with a valid userid and a password. After you have logged in, you may run software programs, control the operating system, or respond to a menu or shell program. Personal computers seldom require that a user log in; operating systems intended for use by more than one individual generally require logging in.
LOG OFF: Ending a session on a system, a network, or a BBS. Also called logout.
LOG ON: The process of identifying yourself and gaining access to an online information service, usually with a valid userid and a password. Also often used to mean "log in".
MACHINE-READABLE DATA FILE: See Computer file.
MAILBOX: The file or directory where your incoming email messages are stored on the host computer.
MAIL GATEWAY: A network host that transfers email messages between dissimilar email systems, reformatting the addresses and headers to match the destination host network as necessary.
MAILING LIST: A list of email addresses for a group of people all interested in a particular topic. Mailing lists are used by a mail exploder to forward one message to all people on the list. Lists may be moderated. The moderator maintains the list and decides which messages to explode. In many cases, you can subscribe to or leave a mailing list by sending a message to the list's "request" address.
MAIL SERVER: Software that distributes files or information in response to email requests. Mail servers are used on the BITNET network to provide ftp-like services.
MAIN ENTRY: The complete catalogue record of an item, presented in the form by which the entity is to be uniformly identified and cited. The main entry may include the tracing(s) (q.v.).
MAIN HEADING: The first part of a heading that includes a subheading (q.v.).
MEGABIT (Mbit): A unit of measurement equal to 1,048,576 bits, or 1024 kilobits, commonly used in specifying the capacity of memory ICs. Not to be confused with megabyte.
MEGABYTE (MB): A unit of measurement equal to 1024 kilobytes, or 1,048,576 bytes.
MIXED RESPONSIBILITY: A work of mixed responsibility is one in which different persons or bodies contribute to its intellctural or artistic content by performing different kinds of activities (e.g., adapting or illustrating a work written by another person). See also Joint author, Shared responsibility.
MODE: Operational state that a system has been switched to. It implies at least two possible conditions. There are countless modes for hardware and software.
MODEM: Short for modulator/demodulator, a peripheral device that links your computer to other computers and information services using the telephone lines.
MOSAIC: A popular web-client developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana for using Internet information available through the World Wide Web protocol.
MEDIUM: The material used to support the transmission of data. This can be copper wire, coaxial cable, optical fiber, or electromagnetic wave as in microwave.
MULTIPLEX: The division of a single transmission MEDIUM into multiple logical channels supporting many apparently simultaneous sessions. For example, CSUNET multiplexes dozens of TELNET, FTP and SMTP sessions.
MULTIMEDIA ITEM: An item containing two or more categories of material, no one of which is identifiable as the predominant constituent of the item; also designated: kit (q.v.).
MULTIPART FILE: A bibliographic entity that consists of more than one computer file (q.v.).
MULTI-USER SYSTEM: An operating system, such as UNIX, that allows many users to access application software simultaneously.
NAMING PROTOCOL: A protocol used by AppleTalk to associate a name with the physical address of a network service.
NAMESERVER: A program running on a computer in a network that is responsible for managing a domain of host names and IP addresses, and providing that information on request from other nameservers or local software programs. In the Internet Domain Name System, no single name server maintains all names and addresses. Addresses are distributed among many nameservers, which know how to find each other.
NAVIGATION: The process of moving from one node to another through the hypertext web. This is normally done by following links. Various features of a particular browser may make this easier. These include keeping a history of where the user has been, and drawing diagrams of links between nearby nodes.
NETFIND: A search utility that will find addresses when given part of the address, or part of the name or description of the address.
NETSCAPE: The most recently released Web-Client as of press date. Developed by Netscape Communications Corporation, Netscape supports many more HTML tags than its predecessors.
NETWORK: A collection of interconnected, individually controlled computers, together with the hardware and software used to connect them. A network allows users to share data and peripheral devices such as printers and storage media, to exchange electronic mail and so on.
NETWORK FILE SYSTEM (NFS): Developed by Sun Microsystems, the NFS protocol allows a computer to access files over a network as if they were on its local disk. Used for file management by most UNIX computer.
NEWSGROUP: A topical discussion group managed by Usenet software programs and sent to many thousands of computers, including most on the Internet. You read and post articles (messages) in a newsgroup. Newsreader software is required.
NIC (Network Operations Center): A NIC provides administrative support, user support, and information services for a network.
NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol): This protocol is defined in RFC977 and specifies the distribution, inquiry and retrieval of news articles between TCP/IP sites on the Internet. NNTP allows articles to be stored in a central database and uses connection-oriented links (in real time) to allow the users' local host to access articles on the central host.
NODE: A device with a network address such as a computer, attached to a computer network.
NREN (National Research and Education Network): The National Research and Education Network is a proposed national computer network to be built upon the foundation of the NSF backbone network, NSFnet. NREN would provide high speed interconnection between other national and regional networks. SB 1067 is the legislative bill proposing NREN.
NSF (National Science Foundation): The U.S. Government agency which promotes the advancement of science, by funding scientific research and project. The NSF funded the NSFnet.
NSFNET: The national backbone network, funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by the Merit Corporation, used to interconnect regional networks such as WESTNET to one another.
OFFLINE: Not currently connected to or under the control of the computer. Used to refer to equipment such as printer and disk drives, information storage media, such as, disks, and the information they contain.
ONLINE: Currently connected to and under the control of the computer. Used to refer to equipment, such as, printers and disk drives, information storage media, such as, disks, and the information they contain.
ONLINE INFORMATION SERVICE: A company that runs a computer that can be accessed from a personal computer through a telephone and modem providing menus of information, electronic mail, and a way to publicly exchange messages with other users. Very similar to bulletin board systems (BBS's), except that an online information service is advertised and promoted to a much larger market. It may provide a connection to the Internet for a fee.
OPERATING SYSTEM: Master control program that runs the computer. It is the first program loaded when the computer is turned on and its main part, called the kernel, resides in memory at all times. It may be developed by the vendor of the computer it's running in or by a third party. It is an important component of the computer system, because it sets the standards for the application programs that run in it. All programs "talk to" the operating system. Also called an executive or supervisor, it performs the following functions: job management, task management, data management, device management, security and history. Common operating systems are: PCs use DOS, OS/2, SCO, XENIX and AIX. Apple IIs use ProDOS. Macintoshes use the system along with Finder and Multifinder as well as A/UX. Digital uses VMS and UCTRIX. IBM main frames use MVS, VM and VSE.
OPAC: Online Public Access Catalog, a term used to describe any type of computerized library catalog.
OSI (Open Systems Interconnect): Developed by the International Standards Organization, OSI is a suite of protocols designed to connect unlike computers and networks throughout the world. Though many Internet component networks allow the use of OSI, it is used mostly in Europe, where IP is not highly regarded. Whether there will be much demand for OSI in the future remains to be seen.
OTHER TITLE INFORMATION: A title borne by an item other than the title proper or parallel or series title(s); also any phrase appearing in conjunction with the title proper, etc., indicative of the character, contents, etc., of the item, of the motives for, or occasion of, its production or publication. The term includes subtitle, avant-titres, etc., but does not include variations on the title proper (e.g., supplied title).
PACKET: The unit of data sent across a packet switching network. The term is used loosely. While some INTERNET literature uses it to refer specifically to data sent across a physical network, other literature views the INTERNET as a packet switching network and describes IP DATAGRAMS as packets.
PACKET SWITCHING: The connectionless network service whereby data are broken up into packets (self-contained bundles of data, such as, datagrams), transmitted, and then reassembled at the destination. No prior communication or connection between network hosts is necessary, and each packet may travel a different route to the destination. The Internet uses TCP/IP to dissemble, transmit, and reassemble packets.
PARITY: A constant state or equal value. Parity checking is an error checking routine in which character bit patterns are forced into parity (total number of one bits, odd or even) by adding a one or zero bit, as appropriate, as they are transmitted. The parity is then checked by the receiving device. If the sum of a series of bits is odd, it is said to have odd parity, and if even, then even parity.
PASSWORD: Word or code used to serve as a security measure against unauthorized access to data. It is normally managed by the operating system of DBMS. However, the computer can only verify the legitimacy of the password, not the legitimacy of the user.
PATH: An ordered set of nodes or anchors which represent a sequence in which a web can be read. A path may represent the sequence a reader actually used, or may be a sequence recommended to the reader by the author.
PERIPHERAL: Any hardware device connected to a computer, such as, a monitor, keyboard, printer, plotter, disk or tape drive, graphics tablet, scanner, joy stick, paddle and mouse.
PERSONAL AUTHOR: The person chiefly responsible for the creation of the intellectual or artistic content of a work.
PHYSICAL CARRIER: A physical medium in which data, sound, images, etc., are stored. For certain categories of material, the physical carrier consists of a storage medium (e.g., tape, film).
POP (Post Office Protocol): A protocol for client-server email systems, such as that used by Eudora for the Macintosh, that exchanges email between a personal computer and an access provider's computer.
PORT: Each application that you can telnet to on the Internet has a unique port number associated with it. By adding the port number to an address when you telnet, you can connect directly to the application, rather than connecting to the computer and then loading the application.
POSTSCRIPT: A language and format for describing the contents of a page that is generated by word processing or graphics programs and interpreted by printers and some dispaly software programs. It consists entirely of 7-bit character. This enables PostScript files to be transmitted by email without further encoding.
PREDOMINANT NAME: The name or form of name of a person or corporate body that appears most frequently (1) in the person's works or works issued by the corporate body, or (2) in reference sources, in that order of preference.
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE: Language used to write instructions for the computer. It lets the programmer express data processing in a symbolic manner without regard to machine-specific details. Today's popular high-level languages for business are BASIC, COBOL, dBASE and Pascal. FORTRAN and ARL are used in scientific areas, and C is used extensively for commercial software. LISP and Prolog are used in Artificial Intelligence applications. Forth is used in process control, and Ada is used by the Dept. of Defense. The newest wave is object-oriented programming, and C++ is very popular.
PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol): A protocol that allows a computer running TCP/IP to connect to the Internet over standard phone lines using a high-speed modem. It is defined in RFC 1171. The successor to SLIP.
PROSPERO: A distributed file system which provides the user with the ability to create multiple views of a single collection of files distributed across the Internet. Prospero provides a file naming system, and file access is provided by existing access methods (e.g., anonymous ftp and NFS). The Prospero protocol is also used for communication between clients and servers in the Archie system.
PROTECTION: The prevention of unauthorized users from reading, or writing, a particular piece of data. Also known as "authentication", "access control", etc.
PROTOCOLS: A formal description of message formats and the rules two computers must follow to exchange those messages. Protocols can describe low-level details of machine-to-machine interfaces (e.g., the order in which bits and bytes are sent across a wire) or high-level exchanges between allocation programs (e.g., the way in which two programs transfer a file across the INTERNET).
QUEUE: A backp of packets awaiting processing.
RANDOM-ACCESS MEMORY (RAM): The part of the computer's memory that stores information temporarily while you're working on it. A computer with 512K RAM has 512 kilobytes of memory available to the user. Information in RAM can be referred to in an arbitrary or random order, hence the term randon access. (As an analogy, a book is a random-access storage device in that it can be opened and read at any point.) RAM can contain both application programs and your own information. Information in RAM is temporary, gone forever if you switch the power off without saving it on a disk or other storage medium. An exception is the battery RAM, which stores settings such as the time and which is powered by a battery. (Technically, the read-only memory (ROM) is also random access, and what's called RAM should correctly be termed read-write memory).
READ-ONLY MEMORY (ROM): Memory whose contents can be read but not changed; used for storing firmware. Information is placed into read-only memory once, during manufacture. It remains there permanently, even when the computer's power is tuned off.
REFERENCE. A direction from one heading or entry to another.
RELATED BODY: A corporate body that has a relation to another body other than a hierarchical relation (e.g., one that is founded but not controlled by another body; one that only receives financial support from another body; one that provides financial and/or other types of assistance to another body, such as, "friends" groups; one whose members have also membership in or an association with another body, such as, employees' associations and alumni associations).
REMOTE ACCESS: The ability to connect your computer to another computer and run programs or manipulate files. Remote access requires communications hardware, software, and actual physical wiring. This can be as simple as using modems and common carrier (telephone) lines between home and office computers, or as complex as telnet login to another computer across the Internet.
REMOTE COMPUTER: A computer other than your own but in communication with yours through telephone lines, network wiring or other communication links. A remote computer can be at any distance from your computer, from right beside it, to thousands of miles away.
REMOTE LOGIN: Using a protocol and program over a computer network to operate a remote computer as though locally attached.
RFC: Abbreviation for Request for Comments; a collection of papers that define the Internet standards and proposed standards.
RLOGIN (Remote Login): A protocol very similar to Telnet used by Berkeley UNIX systems.
ROOT: On most computers, the root directory is the base directory from which all other directories arise. A root domain is (according to an upside-down logic) the highest-level domain in the DNS hierarchy.
ROUTE: The path that network traffic takes from its source to its destination.
ROUTER: A device which routes traffic between networks.
SERIAL: A publication in any medium issued in successive parts bearing numeric or chronological designations and intended to be continued indefinitely. Serials include periodicals; newspapers; annuals (reports, yearbooks, etc.); the journals, memoirs, proceedings, transactions, etc., of societies; and numbered monographic series. See also Series 1.
SERIES: 1. A group of separate items related to one another by the fact that each item bears, in addition to its own title proper, a collective title applying to the group as a whole. The individual items may or may not be numbered. 2. Each of two or more volumes within a series or serial (e.g., Notes and queries, 1st series, 2nd series, etc.).
SERVER: The program running on a network computer which provides resources or offers a service (for example, file servers and nameservers). The program that you use to access a service is called the client. The client and server communicate using a specific protocol.
SERVICE PROVIDER: An organization that provides connections to the Internet. If you want to connect your company's network, or your personal computer, to the Internet, you have to talk to a "service provider".
SHARED RESPONSIBILITY: Collaboration between two or more persons or bodies performing the same kind of activity in the creation of the content of an item. The contribution of each may form a separate and distinct part of the item, or the contribution of each may not be separable from that of the other(s). See also Joint author, Mixed responsibility.
SHAREWARE: A method of software distribution that allows you to try a software program, then pay a nominal fee directly to the author if you decide to continue using it. Much of the software that you can download accross the Internet is shareware.
SHELL: On a UNIX system, the software that interprets commands you enter to control the operating system. On a DOS computer, a system of menus that organized DOS commands and software applications for inexperienced users.
SIG OR SIGNATURE: The three or four lines at the end of an email message that provides additional information about the sender.
SINE LOCO (s.l.): Without place (i.e., the name of the place of pubication, distribution, etc., is unknown).
SINE NOMINEE (s.n.): Without name (i.e., the name of the publisher, distributor, etc., is unknown).
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): The INTERNET standard PROTOCOL for transferring electronic mail messages from one computer to another. SMTP specifies how two mail systems interact and the format of control messages they exchange to transfer mail.
SPECIFIC MATERIAL DESIGNATION: A term indicating the special class of material (usually the class of physical object) to which an item belongs (e.g., sound disc). See also General material designation.
STOP BIT: In asynchronous communications the stop bit is longer than normal and indicates the end of a series of data bits.
SUPPLEMENT: An item, usually issued separately, that complements one already published by bringing up-to-date or otherwise continuing the original or by containing a special feature not included in the original. The supplement has a formal relationship with the original as expressed by common authorship, a common title or subtitle, and/or a stated intention to continue or supplement the original.
SUPPLIED TITLE: A title provided by the cataloguer for an item that has no title proper on the chief source of information or its substitute. It may be taken from elsewhere in the item itself or from a reference source, or it may be composed by the cataloguer.
SYNCHRONOUS: Transmission where the sender and receiver are regulated by strict timing.
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol): A transport layer protocol for the Internet defined by RFC793.
TCP/IP: Abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; a suite of networking protocols developed at the University of California for the U.S. Department of Defense.
TELNET: The INTERNET standard PROTOCOL for remote terminal connection service. TELNET allows a user at one site to interact with a remote timesharing system at another site as if the user's terminal was connected directly to the remote computer.
TERMINAL EMULATION: Most communications software packages will permit your personal computer or workstation to communicate with another computer or network as if it were a specific type of terminal directly connected to that computer or network.
TERMINAL SERVER: A small, specialized, networked computer that connects many terminals to a LAN through one network connection. Any user on the network can then TELNET to various network hosts. A terminal server can also connect many networks users to its asynchronous ports.
TITLE: A word, phrase, character, or group of characters, normally appearing in an item, that names the item or the work contained in it. See also Alternative title, Supplied title, Title proper, Uniform title.
TITLE PROPER: The chief name of an item, including any alternative title but excluding parallel titles and other title information.
TITLE SCREEN (Computer files): In the case of a computer file, a display of data that includes the title proper and usually, though not necessarily, the statement of responsibility and the data relating to publication.
TN3270: A version of TELNET providing IBM full-screen support.
TOPOLOGY: The physical layout of a network.
TRACING: The automatic finding of nodes by automatic navigation . Examples might be finding all nodes dependent on another node, all people interested in a given node, all modules which use a given module. Another example is a trace starting with more than one node, such as, to find a node in common between two groups, or path linking two nodes.
UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR (URL): A standardized technique to point to information resources (i.e., applications) on the Internet. This standard pointer format, known as the URL, points to a file on the network, but if the file is moved, access is lost. To solve this problem, the Internet Engineering Task Force has developed another convention using Uniform Resource Names (URN).
UNIFORM (UNIVERSAL) RESOURCE NAMES (URN): A standardized naming convention developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to symbolically name information resources on the Internet. Servers on the network are required which will tell where applications reside on the Internet.
UNIFORM TITLE: 1. The particular title by which a work is to be identified for cataloguing purposes. 2. The particular title used to distinguish the heading for a work from the heading for a different work. 3. A conventional collective title used to collocate publications of an author, composer, or corporate body containing several works or extracts, etc., from several works (e.g., complete works, several works in a particular literary or musical form).
USENET: A network of about 3 million users (mostly UNIX users) that communicate using the UNIX-to-UNIX Copy Protocol (UUCP).
USMARC: The USMARC formats are standards for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form. It is a set of codes and content designators defined for encoding a particular type of machine-readable record. USMARC formats are defined for the following types of data: bibliographic, holdings and authority.
VERSIONING: The storage and management of previous versions of a piece of information, for security, diagnostics, and interest. This is important when many users are allowed to edit the same material.
VMS: The operating system used by many VAX computers. VAX and VMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corpration.
VT100: A standard terminal type commonly used on the Internet and supported by many computer systems. Terminal emulation programs selected for use on personal computers connected to the Internet should include VT100.
WAIS: Abbreviation for Wide-Area Information Server; an Internet service for looking up specific information in Internet databases for words that you tell it to look for.
WAN (Wide-Area Network): A network which covers a large geographic area. Contrast with LAN.
WEB: A set of nodes interconnected by links . Often, the set of all the nodes which are interconnected.
WESTNET: One of the National Science Foundation funded regional TCP/IP networks that covers the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
WORKSTATION: A networked personal computing device with more power than a standard IBM PC or Macintosh. Typically, a workstation has an operating system such as, UNIX that is capable of running several tasks at the same time. It has several megabytes of memory and a large high-resolution display. Examples are the DEC VAXstation, and the IBM RT-PC.
WWW (World Wide Web): Created by the physicists at CERN in Switzerland, with contributions by many others, WWW is a system of hypertext-based documents that are linked across the Internet, unlike the hierarchical directory of documents, or a gopher menu, where the connections from one directory or file to another are linear. WWW connections are unrestricted, nonlinear, and seemingly endless. As the third part of its name implies, it is a web of connections, linking information from one resource to another, possibly providing the best opportunity for serendipitous discoveries on the Internet. WWW software also can be used for access to WAIS, gopher, and other Internet services.
Z39.50 Protocol: Name of the national standard developed by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) that defines an applications level protocol by which one computer can query another computer and transfer result records, using a canonical format. This protocol provides the framework for OPAC users to search remote catalogs on the Internet using the commands of their own local systems. Projects are now in development to provide Z39.50 support for catalogs on the Internet. SR (Search and Retrieval), ISO Draft International Standard 10162/10163 is the international version of Z39.50.
