ISU Library Lingo
(A glossary of terms useful to new employees of the R&I Division of the library.)
4-H – a non-formal educational program and organization for youth sponsored by the USDA and
agricultural extension services in each state. The four H's stand for Head, Heart, Hands and
Health – see http://www.4-h.org/
ADP – Administrative Data Processing
ADP records – original serial records converted to a machine readable format by Administrative
Data Processing – (OCLC records may not indicate ISU owns these titles). In the library catalog
they are easily detectable as the serial title is shown in ALL CAPS.
AgNIC – Agriculture Network Information Center (pronounced Ag’-nick) – see
http://www.agnic.org/
AIT – Academic Information Technology – often referred to as the campus computer center.
Also referred to as “Durham” (the building in which it is housed).
Aleph – ExLibris product – Staff mode used to check cataloging, acquisitions, serials, and
circulation for materials in the collection. Implemented July 2011. Successor to Horizon.
ANSI – American National Standards Institute
Bomb, The – name of the ISU Yearbook
CAC – Computer Advisory Committee (funds public computing needs)
Cages: This term was originally used to refer to any of several locked areas in which library
materials were housed on regular library shelving and visible to the general public, but with a
lockable wire grating around them to seal them off from public access. Tier 4 Cage was a
storage area where Collections & Technical Services stored items before being added to the
collection (e.g., gifts of library materials awaiting bibliographer review), for reformatting
decisions, or to be cataloged at a later date. Tier 1 Cage had some government documents
such as the Serial Set and older congressional material. Publicly accessible materials located in
Tier 1 Cage had a separate collection code in the catalog. The tier cages were cleared out and
dismantled in 2006 due to the need for more publicly available shelving areas for the General
Collection. Ground Storage has also been frequently referred to as “The Cage” even though it
has never had the wire grating around it. It houses oversize materials from the General
Collection, miniature books, and other items needing additional security. All Ground Storage
materials will have a collection code in the catalog and note to “ask at Circulation.”
Carlyle – first ISU online catalog vendor, went bankrupt so we switched to NOTIS. Carlyle was
simply an online catalog – no other modules existed.
Cat A: Notation found on the check-in label placed on serial issues. This means that all
issues of the serial have unique titles and will have separate monographic records created for
each issue (in other words, the serial title is completely analyzed).
Cat. Sep. – Notation indicating that a monographic series was received as the result of a serial
subscription - each volume in the series is cataloged separately.
CCAA – Central Computer Access Area (this term is used to refer to the cluster of computers in
the lobby)
CDC – Collection Development Council
CDMT – Collection Development Management Team
CIKARD - Center for Indigenous Knowledge of Agriculture and Rural Development
CODI – Customers of Dynix Inc., successor to HUGM (obsolete)
CTA call numbers – obsolete – these are books that used to be part of a biography collection
CTS – Collections & Technical Services
DMACC – Des Moines Area Community College (pronounced D’-mack) – see
http://www.dmacc.cc.ia.us/
DPS – Department of Public Safety (campus police & parking)
DRR – Design Reading Room
EAP – Employee Assistance Program
eGG – e-Library Governance Group – began in 2008 as a modified version of e-LOC
(mentioned below) with the goal to ”assist in the ongoing design, development, assessment,
and continuous improvement of the e-Library.”
e-LOC - e-Library Oversight Committee – obsolete – was a group which had oversight for the
library website – created in 2001 and was disbanded in 2007.
ESRR – Economics & Sociology Reading Room – ceased being a separate reading room in
summer of 2004. Materials were moved to the Parks Library or the Library Storage Building
and some duplicate materials were withdrawn.
FindIt! – early name for ISU Library’s customized implementation of ZPORTAL, a discovery tool
designed to simultaneously search multiple collections and return results in a single
presentation. Name was later changed to MultiSearch. Both are now obsolete terms.
FPM – Facilities Planning & Management
Futurecasting Task Force – created in 2006 to look at future directions for Reference services.
Group was originally named Rethinking Reference Steering Committee. Futurecasting term
was coined by Janet Pine, who chaired the group.
GOBI – YBP’s book database
GSB – Government of the Student Body
GSS – Graduate Student Senate
GWLA - Greater Western Library Alliance (pronounced Gwil’-la) – consortium which we use to
purchase many journal packages and databases at discounted rates – see http://www.gwla.org/
HIP – Horizon Information Portal (obsolete as of 2011)
HOC – Horizon Oversight Committee (obsolete as of 2011)
Horizon/Sunrise – former online library system (current one is Aleph)
HUGM - Horizon User Group Meeting (pronounced Hug ‘Um) – succeeded by CODI (obsolete)
ICAT – yet another old term for the Library Catalog
IDG – Instruction Discussion Group – defunct group – was an informal discussion group to
discuss issues related to instruction.
ILA – Iowa Library Association – see http://www.iowalibraryassociation.org/
ILL – Interlibrary Loan
ILLiad – software package ILL began using in 2012.
Instruction Commons – the information literacy and library research instruction program and its
website. It was previously known as the Undergraduate Commons. Both are now obsolete.
iPAC – product name, not acronym, for epixtech web-based catalog (pronounced i'-pack)
IPM – Information & Policies Manual – old name for the University Policy Manual.
ISI – Institute for Scientific Information – publisher that produced the Web of Science and the
original citation indexes. They were bought in 2011 by Thomson Reuters.
IWISE – International Women in Science & Engineering
LCC – Learning Connections Center – created on the main floor of the Parks Library in 2007.
LibGuides – software purchased in 2007 for the creation of research and instruction guides.
LibQual – is a suite of services that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon
users' opinions of service quality. The ISU Library has participated in LibQual every 2 years
starting in 2001.
Limited Files: This is a phase used to describe a group of serial titles that have retention
statements other than an open entry where the library keeps all issues - such as "latest 5
years," "retained until superceded by microfilm," "current issues only, " etc.
LSA – Library Staff Association
LSB – Library Storage Building
LUEC - Library User Education Committee (predecessor to LUIT) – defunct group
LUIT – Library User Instruction Team (pronounced loo’-it) – defunct group
Luna Insight – software package first used by Digital Services for providing management and
retrieval of images. Switched to CONTENTdm software in 2009.
MRR – Mathematics Reading Room
MU – Memorial Union
NARS - Notes About Reference Service (obsolete)
NOTIS – mainframe-based precursor to Horizon (obsolete)
o.e. Gen – open entry in the General Collection – often erroneously referred to by
bibliographers as “older editions in Gen.”
OPG – Office Procedure Guide – now part of the University Policy Manual and available on the
ISU website.
P&S staff – Professional & Scientific staff
Parks Library – The name of the main library building at ISU. When referring to the Library as
a system or institution, use: The Iowa State University Library, or the ISU Library, or the
University Library, or the University Library system (depending on context).
Part Cat A: Notation found on the check-in label placed on serial issues. The notation means
that selected issues of this serial may have a monographic catalog record created (in other
words, it is partially analyzed). This occurs when an occasional issue has a unique title or
subject content, i.e. the entire issue is devoted to one topic.
PER Room – Periodical Room
PIT – Portal Implementation Team – group which had oversight of implementing FindIt!
Superseded by MetaLib Implementation Team in 2007.
Plenum – this is a large crawl space under rooms 198 A&B accessible through the original
boiler room. Historically, it was used for storage of books, shelving, and supplies, but is no
longer in use due to safety concerns. It mainly contains heating and ventilation ducts and piping.
In the past it has also been referred to as the “Return Plenum” or the “Storage Plenum.”
PPP – Point-to-Point Protocol – allows patrons computer to be “identified” as an ISU IP address.
Primo – is essentially the public interface for our traditional library catalog plus some additional
content including library webpages, LibGuides, and our digital collections.
Primo Central – is Primo plus a federated search engine with journal content from a wide variety
of publishers. Some libraries only have Primo – we have both Primo and Primo Central.
Proxification – the process of making library resources available from off-campus by adding a
proxy prefix to a url and having users pass through an authentication/proxy server to verify they
are legitimate ISU users.
PSCMC – Public Services & Collections Management Council – name later changed to PSMC
when Collections moved into Technical Services. (Obsolete.)
PSRR - Physical Sciences Reading Room – frequently referred to as Phys Sci (pronounced
fizz-sigh). Closed in Fall 2009. Materials were moved to the Parks Library or the Library
Storage Building and some duplicate materials were withdrawn.
PY call numbers – obsolete – these are books that used to be part of a fiction collection
QP – a.k.a. QuestionPoint – chat and email software used for Ask-a-Librarian from 2004 to
around 2009. (Obsolete)
Quad, The – old nickname (due to building shape) for Lagomarcino Hall back when it was the
home of the Vet College.
RCA – Richardson Court Association – governance body for residence halls in this area of
campus.
RCI – Reference Collection Index – old keyword index to Reference tools – no longer updated
RIMT – Reference & Instruction Management Team
SCAA – SCHOLAR Central Access Area – old name – now called CCAA.
SCHOLAR – System of Computerized enHancement Of Learning And Research – people who
still use this term are usually referring to the old interface for the e-Library…pre-2001.
Serials Information Window – This was a walk-up window (on the north side of room 204) that
allowed patrons to check on the receipt status of specific serial issues and gain access to issues
which had already arrived but were not yet shelved. The window was permanently closed in
2000 due to decreased traffic/need as the library catalog records became more detailed.
SerialsSolutions – company the ISU Library used from 2003-2007 to provide our e-journal web
pages.
SLCR - Staff Lounge Conference Room (pronounced sell’-ker)
StaffPAC – the staff module of Horizon/Sunrise (obsolete)
TRIO - The Regents Institutions Online (it’s actually the Regents’ Libraries) – see
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/ref/trio/
Undergraduate Commons – also referred to as Undergrad Commons or Undergraduate
Electronic Commons – precursor to Instruction Commons (obsolete)
USAIN – US Agriculture Information Network (pronounced U’-sane) – see http://www.usain.org/
VEISHEA – the largest student-organized festival in the U.S. (pronounced vee’-sha) The
letters stand for the colleges that were in existence when the festival was established:
Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, Agriculture.
VITA – Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (advice service offered by a College of Business
student group each year during tax season)
VPN – Virtual Private Network. A VPN connection uses encryption to securely connect to Iowa
State's local network. There are many times when a VPN connection will interfere with the
library database connections and proxy server, so it has become pretty standard to recommend
researchers turn OFF their VPN connection while using library databases.
WebPAC – precursor to iPAC, the public interface of the library catalog (obsolete)
WISE – Women in Science & Engineering
WOREP – Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program. An assessment tool with 2 linked
components allowing each transaction to be separately evaluated by the patron and the
librarian, then the results were compared. The R&I division has conducted this twice. Once in
1991 and again in 2003. The tool originated at the University of Wisconsin and then moved to
Kent State University. According to their website, it was discontinued in 2011.
X call numbers – obsolete – books with these letter designations above the call number are part
of old collections in one of several areas – they are interfiled with the rest of the collection and
this part of the call number is ignored when shelving:
XC
Cessna (religion)
XCA Carrie Chapman Catt (war and peace)
XE
Ehinger (birds, natural history)
XF
Foreign titles for graduate students' language study
XI
Incunabula
XM
Carnegie music
XMA Marston
XP
State Planning Board
XS
Storage
XT
Extension
YBP – a book vendor – used to stand for Yankee Book Peddlar. They officially changed their
company name to YBP Library Services.
ZPORTAL – proprietary software package underlying FindIt! or Multisearch (developed by
Fretwell-Downing Informatics) – no longer use.
Created by Lorrie Pellack – last revised 8/94/12