6 Jargon Buster

Archives: The Archives collections of NUI Galway Library comprise over 350 collections including Literary Collections, Theatre, Film and Performing Arts Collections, Political and Historical Collections and Collections relating to the Irish language.  Explore our treasures by searching or browsing through the list of collections below, or cross-search across all our collections with the Archives Catalogue.

Articles (Journal articles): An item of research written by an academic or other expert, to communicate new ideas or findings to the wider research community. Several articles are published together within a journal issue.

Bibliography: A list of books or a list of sources on a particular topic.

Borrowing: Undergraduate students may borrow 6 books for 7 days. These books will auto renew 9 times before the item must be returned to the library (excluding recall).

Book a study room: To book a study room in the library, please visit this page for more information: https://nuigalway.libcal.com/r

Catalogue: The library catalogue (Primo) is where you can search the vast collection of sources at NUI Galway library including books, ebooks, journal articles, reference entries and theses. Visit the catalogue here: https://library.nuigalway.ie/

Citation: A brief description of a publication referring to a specific passage, text, author, webpage etc. It appears as a Reference or Footnote and contains sufficient details to enable you to locate the publication, website etc.

Classmark: Each subject is given a different classmark in the Library’s physical stacks of print material, on various floors of the Library building. For example the classmark for Accounting is 657.

Database: A searchable electronic catalogue or index. It often includes details of individual articles within journals and sometimes chapters in books. Popular multidisciplinary databases include Scopus and Academic Search Complete.

Dewey Decimal Classification: The books in the library are arranged on the shelves using the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). It is the most widely used library classification system in the world. The word “Dewey” refers to Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) who devised the classification, and was first published in 1876. The second word “Decimal” refers to the base-ten notation that is used to denote and relate subjects. It uses Arabic numerals treated like decimal fractions. Hence the name of the classification is the Dewey Decimal Classification. It is continuously revised to keep pace with knowledge. For a full list of DDC visit: https://libguides.library.nuigalway.ie/dewey

E-book or E-journal: A book or journal that is in electronic format and can be read in full online.

Fines: The fine policy is as follows: Books from the Main Library without additional loan term stipulations are charged at a rate of €0.50 per day. Books from the Main Library under 3 Day Loan restrictions are charged at a rate of €2.00 per day. Books from the Main Library under 1 Day Loan restrictions are charged at a rate of €4.00 per day. DVDs, CDs, Software (CD-Rom), Audio CDs, Audio Cassette Tapes, and VHS Tapes are charged at a rate of €0.50 per day. All other equipment, electronics, and library materials will be assessed on a case-by-case basis as regards the terms of borrowing and fines in the event of late return or lost or stolen items.

One day loan: Restricted Loan Period – One Day Loans Books and materials marked as One Day Loans and/or showing a 1 Day due date period at the time of check out are only available to check out for 1 day at a time. One Day Loans are not eligible for automatic renewals.

Three day loan: Three Day Loans Books and materials marked as Three Day Loans and/or showing a 3 day due date period at the time of check out are only available to check out for 3 days at a time. Three Day Loans that have not been recalled will automatically renew up to 3 times if the borrower does not have any fines, overdue books, or restrictions on their account.

Journal: (also called periodical or serial) A publication that contains scholarly articles and is published at regular intervals.

Journal article: An item of research written by an academic or other expert, to communicate new ideas or findings to the wider research community. Several articles are published together within a journal issue.

LibGuides (or Library Guides): Library Guides are a useful way for you to begin your research. They provide information on accessing books, articles, databases and websites for your area of study. For a full list, visit here: https://libguides.library.nuigalway.ie/

Peer review(ed): The most-respected scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, which means that experts in their field other than the author and editor check out each article before it can be published. It’s their responsibility to help guarantee that new material is presented in the context of what is already known, that the methods the researcher used are the right ones, and that the article contributes to the field. For those reasons, peer-reviewed articles are more likely to be credible. Peer-reviewed journal articles are the official scholarly record, which means that if it’s an important development in research, it will probably turn up in a journal article eventually.

Reference collection: describes items that you may use in the Library but may not borrow, such as dictionaries, atlases and encyclopaedias. Many of these items are available online.

Reference List: A reference list contains details of all sources cited in text. It appears at the end of a work and includes details about the author, title, date of publication etc. Always make sure to check which style of referencing you need to use and consult the relevant style guide. Click here for information on the different style guides: https://libguides.library.nuigalway.ie/research-skills/citingandreferencing