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Glossary of Library Terms: S

Library words explained briefly with French translation. Indexes for direct links.

Scholarly

Articles or books written by an academic, someone who has a graduate degree in the field they are writing about.

See also Peer-Reviewed.

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Français

 

savant, scientifique

Search Engine

A set of computer programs that allow you to find information on the Web.

A search engine has three components:

  1. A spider (computer program) that travels the Web from link to link identifying and reading web pages
  2. An index based on the pages that have been read
  3. A program that will match your search terms with the terms of the index and return the resulting web pages to you.

When you are searching the Web you are using the third component of the search engine. Remember that one search engine will not search everything on the Web. If you’re not getting good results try a different search engine.

Examples of search engines:

google logo                   

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Français

 

moteur de recherche

Secondary Source

A source that talks about or makes use of primary sources.

A secondary source can include an evaluation, an analysis or an interpretation of a primary source. It may include comments or discussions about the original material, as well as quotes, or images from the primary source. Some examples are biographies, textbooks, encyclopedias, review articles, or a scholarly article that discusses or evaluates someone else’s research.

See also Primary Source.

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Français

 

source secondaire

Subject Headings

A word or phrase that describes the subject content of a document.

Subject headings are most often used in library catalogues. They are official terms that have been selected by specialists to describe the content of the items in the catalogue. They allow items on a topic to be gathered under one word or phrase. You can quickly find items that discuss your research topic even when authors are using different terminology.

Example:  If the library catalogue has a subject heading social classes, items about inequality, class structure, the elite, or the poor vs rich in our society may all be assigned to that subject heading. If you want material on any of these topics you would have to search using the term social classes.

Some databases use descriptors or subject terms. They function in the same way as subject headings.

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Français

 

vedettes-matières

Summary

A brief description of the content of a document such as a book, article, webpage, or report.

A very short summary is often used as a way of referring to a source when writing a research paper. For example: “Weston (2009) found that participants in the exercise group had higher grades than those in the control group, demonstrating the role of exercise as a learning aid.” Longer summaries contain the key ideas of the article: topic, introduction, and supporting details. A summary of a research article would also include method, results and conclusion. 

See also: Annotated bibliographies             

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Français

 

résumé