In the course of doing ordering, receiving, invoice payment, serials work, and other acquisitions tasks, staff are hearing more and more words, phrases, and names that are related to the new technical world we work in and the new electronic resources the library is investing in. The following list is intended both to familiarize you with your digital work environment as well as present you with explanations of what some of the electronic resource terminology means and how it affects you.
It's a single agent who maintains, selects, and distributes a collection of electronic resources. The main feature of an aggregation is that it must be purchased as a whole. Thus JSTOR is an aggregator, since we cannot purchase a single title in JSTOR. The ProQuest Direct Research Library is an aggregation, since many full-text journals are available through it, but we weren't able to chose which journals we wanted. We purchased the aggregation or nothing.
Verification of identity as a security measure. Authentication of online resources means verifying whether someone who tries to use the resource is entitled to do so according to the license terms. Authentication can be done by password (as for the OVID databases such as Medline or PsycInfo) or by IP address. Access to many of our online databases (except OVID) and journals is controlled by IP address.
Springer journal
http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/10071/index.htm
This journal is not registered for our IP addresses, so it fails the
authentication process.
A browser is software used to look at various Internet resources in a more appealing and user friendly fashion. Netscape is a browser that we are most familiar with. Aside from Netscape, which is a product of the Netscape Communications Corporation, we also hear other names of browsers, such as Internet Explorer, a Microsoft product, and Lynx which was first developed by the Academic Computing Services of the University of Kansas.
All browsers do the same thing which is to allow us to look at the Internet resources. Except they have different appearance, different function buttons etc. Regardless which browser you use, if you want to look at http://www.library.yale.edu, you get to the same site.
A button is a little clickable box on the computer screen that is a shortcut for a command. Clicking on the box will execute the command, such as starting a search.
VendoWeb http://resources.library.yale.edu/LSOTST1/
RADIO BUTTON: A group of buttons on the computer screen of which only one can be selected at a time (by clicking on it). When you select one button, all the others are automatically deselected. Radio buttons are used a lot with interactive forms on World Wide Web pages.
Eli Express form http://www.library.yale.edu/circ/eliexprs.htm
Compare with check box, which allows you to select any combination of options.
Web of Science full search http://www.webofscience.com
CD-ROM: Compact Disc Read-Only Memory <storage> - A non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. CD-ROM is popular for distribution of large databases, software and especially multimedia applications. The maximum capacity is about 600 megabytes.
CD-ROM drives are rated with a speed factor where 1x gives a data transfer rate of 150 kilobytes per second; 20x was thought to be the maximum speed due to mechanical constraints but machines are available now with speeds of 32X and more. CD-ROM drives may connect to an IDE interface, a SCSI interface or a propritary interface. Most CD-ROM drives can also play audio CDs.
Floppy Disk: <hardware, storage>; Also called floppy diskette. A small, portable plastic disk coated in a magnetisable substance used for storing computer data, readable by a computer with a floppy disk drive. The physical size of disks has shrunk from the early 8 inch to 5 1/4 inch ("minifloppy") to 3 1/2 inch ("microfloppy") while the data capacity has risen.
These disks are known as "floppy" disks (or diskettes) because the disk is flexible and the read/write head is in physical contact with the surface of the disk in contrast to "hard disks" (or winchesters) which are rigid and rely on a small fixed gap between the disk surface and the heads. Floppies may be either single-sided or double-sided. 3.5 inch floppies are less floppy than the larger disks because they come in a stiff plastic "envelope" or case, hence the alternative names "stiffy" or "crunchy" sometimes used to distinguish them from the floppier kind.
The following formats are used on IBM PCs and elsewhere:
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Cookies are tiny files that are placed on your workstation's memory and can be read later by that server (and maybe others) again. Cookies can be used to tell a server lots of things including who you are (if you signed a registry) or where you are in the midst of a search. The first might make you wonder about privacy. The second seems practical.
You may see messages on the library's listserv (yulib) and wonder what in the world these products are. One easy way to find out is to use the Research Workstation, a place where instruction and reference staff tell patrons about our resources. If you go to the database page of the Research Workstation, each page associated with a resource, should have little "about" section.
Preparation of a floppy disk or CD so that data can be written to it.
FrEdit is a locally developed program that reformats copied RLIN records so that they can be pasted into Orbis. CLARR is FrEdit's replacement. It is developed by a person at the Library of Northwestern University. It does essentially the same thing as FrEdit did, except it is more flexible and powerful. For example, CLARR can handle any record formats, while FrEdit was limited to monographs only. CLARR can handle diacritics which was a big weakness of FrEdit. FrEdit works with McGill and CLARR doesn't. It works with HostExplorer.
Gifs and jpegs are pictures or images. Sometimes images are used to "customize" an electronic resource to show that Yale has purchased access. The publisher will create a "personalized" entry page for Yale. A selector may give you a statement to be incorporated in the opr notes that the library will be supplying a gif to personalize Yale's access. I designed an exit page for electronic resources that incorporates a gif from the Library Front Door. This makes the page seem familiar to people used to the Front Door.
HostExplorer is really a new version of McGill. McGill company was sold to Hummingbird Corp. The new company renamed the old McGill to HostExplorer. This is why we see a hummingbird logo as we start an Orbis session. There is no big differences in appearance and everything we could do in McGill can still be done in HostExplorer. However, HostExplorer is more powerful and includes more features than McGill. McGill will go away once the On-line Shelflist is rewritten to accommodate the use of HostExplorer.
The Internet (or Information Superhighway as it has been called) is the communication network on which web, telnet, and e-mail communicates from one company or institution to another.
Internet address <networking> (IP address, TCP/IP address) - The 32-bit host address defined by the Internet Protocol in STD 5, RFC 791. It is usually represented in dotted decimal notation. A hosts's Internet address is sometimes related to its Ethernet address and it must be translated into an Ethernet address by either ARP or constant mapping. The Internet address is usually expressed in dot notation, e.g. 128.121.4.5. The address can be split into a network number (or network address) and a host number unique to each host on the network and sometimes also a subnet address.
Class A - 130.*.*.*
Class B - 130.132.*.*
Class C - 130.132.32.*
When using TC/PIP as a protocol, your PC is configured with a TC/PIP number of address. That address contains the internet address for the Yale campus network, your subnet address on that network, and a unique identifier for your PC. For much of Yale, the campus network is 130.132. The subnet of the campus network where your PC is located and a specific unique number for your PC are appended to the campus network designation. Each subnet is limited to 255 users, so no unique PC number can be greater than 255. A location can have many subnets and Yale University does. The campus also supports several main networks in addition to 130.132.
To compare your workstation's IP address to your home address, the first two elements of the IP are your city (130.132=New Haven), the third element of the IP is your street (130.132.32=Whitney Avenue), and the fourth element of the IP is your house number (130.132.32.199=1047).
IP: Internet Protocol - The network layer for the TCP/IP protocol suite widely used on Ethernet networks. IP is a connectionless, best-effort packet switching protocol. It provides packet routing, fragmentation and re-assembly through the data link layer. IP is responsible for moving packets from node to node across the network.
Protocol - A set of formal rules describing how to transmit data, especially across a network. Low level protocols define the electrical and physical standards to be observed, bit- and byte-ordering and the transmission and error detection and correction of the bit stream. High level protocols deal with the data formatting, including the syntax of messages, the terminal to computer dialogue, character sets, sequencing of messages, etc.
Packet - The unit of data sent across a network. "Packet" is a generic term used to describe a unit of data at any layer of the OSI protocol stack, but it is most correctly used to describe application layer data units.
Node - An addressable device attached to a computer network. More often called a "host".
Java is a fairly new programming language that can be used to create animations and interactive features on World Wide Web pages. Java programs are embedded into HTML documents and can be run on newer web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator (2.0 or above) or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Small Java applications are called Java applets.
Shamrock Applet http://www1.bluemountain.com/eng/interact_art/SPclover3.html
License - Permission to do something which, without such permission, would be illegal. For example, a license to use digital information gives the Licensee permission to access and use the information under the terms and conditions described in the agreement between the Licensor and the Licensee.
Licensee - the person or entity that is given permission through a License to access or otherwise use digital information. The Licensee, often a library, educational or research organization, generally pays the Licensor a fee for permission to use digital information.
License Agreement - A written contract setting forth the Terms under which a Licensor grants a License to a Licensee.
Links -Relationships or connections
between 2 anchors. For example, look at the Yale Websites, the Yale
Site links to the Library Site which links to the different library
websites. Going from one link to another is accomplished through the
use of hot-links or hyper-links. All one has to do is click on the
links to go to the next site.
Hot-links [usually colored blue and sometimes underlined on webpages]
are coded URLs that are used by the web authors in their pages to
create linkages.
URL - Uniform Resource Locator , formerly Universal Resource Locator, are addresses or locations assigned to each document/file/page on the web. It is like the call number one assigns to a book so that it can be located, or the address one writes on an envelope for it to reach its destination. There are prescribed rules on how a URL is de formulated, just like there are rules on how a call number has to have a class number and a book number. If you look at a URL, you will note that the name of a university or college is always followed by edu, i.e. www.yale.edu; an organization is followed by org., i.e. www.worldbank.org and commercial concerns are followed by com., i.e. www.amazon.com. Websites emanating from foreign countries also carry the initials for that country such as uk for the United Kingdom in their URL. When you look at a website, the URL is what appears on the window that says Location on top of the page after below the tool bars.
Some publishers don't want electronic versions of their recent publications available either because they figure it will hurt the sales of their current print publications, or because they figure it will hurt the sales of their current electronic publications (if they have allowed another company to make available electronic versions of older materials). So a moving wall rolls forward in time, always preventing the most recent years from showing. A fixed wall stops materials at a particular date, usually because the publisher has their own materials available from that moment in time. JSTOR is one example of a product with fixed and moving walls.
The net-ID is the means by which Information Technology Services (ITS) registers Yale University affiliates who wish to use network resources and which in turn serves as a patron's password when accessing those networked resources. EXAMPLE: jsmith@pantheon.yale.edu; cutiepie@pantheon.yale.edu; To find your net-id, go to Eudora/Tools/Directory Services and search on your name. The information in the line labelled "finger" is your net-ID.
PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol <communications, protocol> The protocol defined in RFC 1661, the Internet standard for transmitting network layer datagrams (e.g. IP packets) over serial point-to-point links.
PPP has a number of advantages over SLIP; it is designed to operate both over asynchronous connections and bit-oriented synchronous systems, it can configure connections to a remote network dynamically, and test that the link is usable. PPP can be configured to encapsulate different network layer protocols (such as IP, IPX, or AppleTalk) by using the appropriate Network Control Protocol (NCP).
Essentially, OrbEdit and OrbSrch are the same, except, OrbEdit sessions have fixed ids (e.g.SVG6). A fixed id is associated with the sign-on (McGill# and password) of an authorized staff. Therefore, it remains constant regardless of when and where s/he opens an OrbEdit session. OrbSrch does not carry a fixed id. Which means, each time when an OrbSrch session is opened, it may have a different id (e.g. YS11). To perform most of our daily work the fixed id is not visibly important. However, in 2 situations it is very important:
The name for a cluster of UNIX servers at Yale. The Pantheon is a multiuser system that thousands of people have access to. The individual servers are called Minerva, Mercury, Morpheus, and Mars. They are managed by Academic Computing Services and reside in the Computing and Information Systems machine room at 155 Whitney. Physically, they are beige cases with purple feet.
PHOTO: http://pantheon.yale.edu/help/aboutpantheon/
PDF - Portable Document Format is a document format that preserves the appearance of the original document. It requires an Acrobat Reader, a software, to view a PDF file on your web browser. Both PDF and the Acrobat Reader were developed by Adobe.
HTML - Hypertext Markup Language - is another document format that uses codes to indicate to the Web browser how todisplay information. Unlike PDF, an HTML document does not preserve the appearance of the original.
For examples of how PDF displays compared to other formats see:
http://www.library.yale.edu/socsci/egcdis2.html
With electronic resources, there is usually not a physical object that we receive and can store and hang on to. This means that when a subscription ends, we may have nothing to which we can refer, even for those years during which we subscribed. This may not matter. We buy newspapers that we discard after a period of time. We have chosen not to have perpetual access to those newspapers (at least in the paper format). On the other hand, if we want to always be able to have access to the electronic materials to which we are subscribing, we need to negotiate (if possible) perpetual access. This may very well be an aspect of a subscription that will be recorded on the Orbis record.
The Pantheon email system which most faculty and students at Yale use. Most library staff use Eudora.
Program Manager - The initial display in Windows, containing names and icons of program groups and applications which you can run. In addition to opening and closing applications from Program Manager, you can also create and delete groups and add applications (icons) to a group.
File Manager - In Windows, File Manager provides a graphical representation of files and directories as well as an easy means of organizing and maintaining these. Various tasks may be performed within File Manager, including viewing the contents of directories; moving, copying, and deleting files and directories; searching for, renaming, and printing files and directories; changing from one disk drive to another, including network drives.
NT Explorer - NT Explorer serves in the NT environment in much the same way that File Manager does in the Windows environment, providing a graphical representation of files, directories, drives, and networks. Used in most of the same ways as File Manager.
Programs - are instructions executed by a computer. An applications program is one example, another is a systems program which control the computer and run the applications programs.
Applications - program/software that helps the user accomplish a specific task; for example, a word processing program, such as Word Perfect or Microsoft Word; a spreadsheet program such as Excel.
Accessories - are the extras you get with your computer. They are like some options you get when buying a car. You don't really need them to run your machine, but they are nice to have when you need them. Examples are: Calculator, Notepad, Calendar, etc.
[To find out what accessories you have in your workstation, click on Start, then Programs, then select Accessories. For those not using NT, there is an icon labeled Accessories in your Program Manager]
Orbis is an example of local access. It is a database that is owned, created and maintained at Yale. We have local control.When it breaks down, it can be fixed by Yale.
RLIN and OCLC are examples of remote access. We can look at them, use them and even derive records from them. But they are owned, created and maintained at other institutions. Although we might contribute to the database, we have no control over them. When they break down, we can only wait.
RLIN stands for the Research
Libraries Information Network.
OCLC stands for Online Computer Library Center.
When we refer to RLIN and OCLC, we commonly refer to their respective bibliographic databases. Both are used by hundreds of research libraries, archival repositories, museums, for cataloging, interlibrary loan, and archives and manuscripts control. Both have unique strengths as well as weaknesses, have different structure, and require different search commands. For acquisitions work, the most obvious difference is: for a particular title, RLIN displays all available member records on the same level for the user to choose, while OCLC chooses one record to display as a "mother-record" (see examples).
For more information about RLIN and OCLC, check out:
is a terminal emulation protocol that lets a user login to other computers on the Internet. The telnet command/program gets you to the login prompt of another host and allows you to sign on and "use" the Internet site computer as if it were the one sitting on your desk.
ORBIS
http://www.med.yale.edu/medmenu/
NLM Locator
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/locator.html
is an operating system, just like Windows or DOS are operating systems that enable you to command your workstation (or a remote workstation) to operate. Sometimes people talk about operating systems as "platforms". So a software program might be available for the Windows, Macintosh, and Unix platforms. This simply means that different versions of the same program are available to work with the different operating systems mentioned. Unix is very different from Windows and Macintosh. For those of you who remember DOS, Unix is more like that, requiring you to type a command to do anything. The library's web server operates using Unix. So do the servers where your electronic mail is initially received.
Some people prefer being able to command an electronic resource to do something without wading through a lot of fancy screens. Other people have very slow network connections at home, and want basic faster access to the e-resources. Compared to your familiar regular Orbis session, WebPac (Orbis via the web) can seem very slow.
http://www.library.yale.edu/ecollections/ETerminology.html
