Glossary starting with letter C

Call Number: An identification marker consisting of letter and numbers used in libraries to categorize books and other resources for easy retrieval and location. Items are arranged on the book shelves by call number, so the call number can also be termed as address of materials on the shelf.

Card Catalogue: A card file, arranged by author, title, and subject, listing all items owned by a library.

Catalogue: A complete and systematically organized enumeration of items found in the libraries.

Categorization: Grouping together like concepts, entities, objects, resources, etc.

Central Processing Unit: The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the brain of any computer system; all major calculations and comparisons are made inside the CPU and it is also responsible for activating and controlling the operations of other units of a computer system. It guides, directs and controls a computer performance. It also executes the instruction given to it. The CPU consists of the Arithmetic-Logic Unit (ALU), control unit, registers, and basic Input-Output (I/O) and often other hardware closely linked with these.

Chained Library: One in which the books were chained to shelves or reading desks.

Circulation: The process of checking books and other materials in and out of a library by the users.

Citations: A reference or footnote to a published or unpublished source by providing essential details about the work to enable its later retrieval by the users. The information like author, title, publisher, year or date, volume, pages which identifies a source of information for example a book or article are provided as a citation.

Class Number: The top or 1^st part of the call number which stands for artificial number assigned to the content of the material as per a library classification system.

Classification: The arrangement of subjects into certain categories.

Computer Hardware: The physical or mechanical parts of the computer system that can be seen and touched are known as hardware. It consists of a combination and collection of electro-mechanical and electronic components and devices, electronic circuits and microelectronic equipment assembled in metal boxes in the form of modules and cabinet.

Computer Keyboard: Keyboards are the most commonly used input devices usually having 83-84 keys and enhanced with 101 keys or even more. The enhanced keyboards are more popular.

Computer Mouse: It is a hand-held pointing device that allows controlling the computer without having to type the instruction through keyboard. The scrolling mouse is a small unit with a round ball at the bottom and with two depression switches at the upper top portion having again a scroll button. Nowadays cord less as well as without scroll ball-type of mouse are also available.

Computer Output Unit: An output device is any product or machine that is capable of bringing information for user view. It presents the processed data or information to the user. It can be a printed page, a picture in monitor, and so on. Anything which comes out of a computer system is the output of it.

Computer Printer: A computer printer, or more commonly called the printer, is a device that produces a hard copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies.

Computer Scanner: Scanners are used to store or feed an entire image / data or page of other information into the computer system. Image scanner is a general-purpose device which digitizes a two-dimensional image.

Computer Software: The programmes written for a computer to perform different operation are called software and it can be defined as the set of computer programme, procedures and associated documentation or complete set of instruction which enable the computer to obtain solution of a problem that resides in the memory or storage device of a computer.

Computer: A computer is a device that solves problems by applying prescribed operation on data entered into it. It is a set of interacting elements, responding to input so as to produce desire output.

Container: A box or holder used for storing a bibliographic item, group of items, or part of an item. Physically separable from its contents, a container can be open or lidded.

Contemporary: In the antiquarian and used book trade, a work published within the most recent decade.

Controlled Vocabulary: The standardization of words which may be used to search an index, abstract or information database. A controlled vocabulary typically includes preferred and variant terms and has a defined scope or describes a specific domain and is used to index content and/or to retrieve content through browsing or searching.

Copyright: The legal right granted to a copyright holder for the exclusive production, use, sale, distribution or reproduction of a creative, musical or artistic work. It is a form of intellectual property that prevents others from using a creative work without consent of the owner.

Correspondence: Letters or recorded messages exchanged between two or more people.

Countersunk: Said of a depression stamped or impressed on the surface of a book cover to display a label, inlay, or decoration.

Courier: A person or service hired by a library to retrieve materials on request from an off-site storage facility, or to transport materials from one library to another within a library network, system or consortium, as opposed to relying on the postal service or a commercial delivery service.                                                   

Cover: The outer protective material attached to the bound leaves of a manuscript or printed publication, consisting in books of two panels (front and back), each attached to the inlay over the spine along a flexible joint. Books bound in paper, cloth, or leather over boards are said to be published in hardcover. The cover of a machine-bound book is called a case. Books bound in flexible paper covers are called paperbacks.

Cracked: The condition of a book that has developed one or longer, narrow breaks in the cover or down the length of the spine.

Creator: The individual or agency responsible for creating, receiving, producing records or documents.

Badan Barman at present working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014, Assam, India. He is the creator of the LIS Links (http://www.lislinks.com) - India’s most popular social networking website for Library and Information Science professionals. He also created the UGC NET Guide (http://www.netugc.com) and LIS Study (http://www.lisstudy.com) website.