Glossary of Terms

// Sharing Resource Sharing Resources //

 A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A       

Abstract – An abstract is a short, concise summary of an academic paper, thesis, or book. Its purpose is to give readers a quick overview of the main points of the work so they can decide whether to read the full text.

Access – In the context of libraries, this often refers to the ability of users to use, retrieve, and/or obtain library resources, such as books, journals, databases, and digital or electronic format materials.

Accession Number – An accession number is a unique identifier assigned to an item when it is added (or “accessioned”) into a collection, such as a library, archive, or museum. It serves as a permanent record of the item’s entry into the institution’s holdings and helps staff track, manage, and reference it.

ACRL Annual Survey – “The ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey is administered by the ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey Editorial Board and is the largest survey of academic libraries in the country, providing one of the most comprehensive portraits of the impact that academic libraries have across the U.S.”

American Library Association (ALA) – The American Library Association (ALA) is one of the largest library associations in the world, founded in 1876 in the United States. It works to promote libraries, librarianship, and access to information for all people. The ALA sets professional standards, advocates for library funding and intellectual freedom, and supports library workers through research, training, and policy initiatives.

ALA Request Form – The ALA request form is a standardized fillable document created and supported by the ALA in order to encourage and facilitate interlibrary loan between libraries. The form is beneficial in that it provides consistency. However, in the digital era where libraries rely on software solutions such as ILLiad or Rapido to send and fill requests, the ALA Request Form is much less common, particularly among academic libraries.

Alma – Alma is a popular Library Management System, frequently used in conjunction with Primo (see below).

Annotated Bibliography – A type of bibliography which includes an analysis and/or a summary of each item cited in the bibliography.

APA Style – The American Psychological Association (APA) citation and format style, currently on its 7th edition.

Application Programming Interface (API) – “An API, or application programming interface, is a set of rules or protocols that enables software applications to communicate with each other to exchange data, features and functionality.

APIs simplify and accelerate application and software development by enabling developers to integrate data, services and capabilities from other applications, instead of developing them from scratch. APIs give application owners a simple, secure way to make application data and functions available to both internal and external API consumers.” – linked site

Archives – “A place where people can go to gather firsthand facts, data, and evidence from letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs, and other primary sources.”

Article – A short academic publication, often appearing in a collected journal. The article usually presents some form of new and original academic analysis, research, or review on a particular topic.

Article Exchange – “Article Exchange provides a single secure location where lending libraries can place requested articles for interlibrary loan. It allows users to upload files for pickup anywhere in the world. Only authorized users will be able to download the file.” Frequently used by libraries relying on Worldshare ILL and ILLiad as ILL solutions.

Article Galaxy Scholar – A just-in-time, on-demand solution that can be incorporated into resource sharing workflows.

B       

Banned Book (vs. a Challenge) –  “A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.”

Bibliography – A collection of citations, often appearing at the end of an academic work as a “bibliography,” “reference list,” or “works cited” pages.

Blu-ray – “Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-definition video. The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games… The name refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs, resulting in an increased capacity.”

Boolean Operators –  “Boolean operators form the basis of mathematical sets and database logic.

•     They connect your search words together to either narrow or broaden your set                         of results.
•     The three basic boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.

Why use Boolean operators?

•     To focus a search, particularly when your topic contains multiple search terms.
•     To connect various pieces of information to find exactly what you’re looking for.
•     Example:

second creation (title) AND wilmut and campbell (author) AND 2000 (year)”

Borrower – The library which is borrowing another library’s/institution’s library material in an interlibrary loan transaction.

Boston Library Consortium – A consortium of libraries in the northeastern United States. It has done a lot of work regarding eBook resource sharing and Controlled Digital Lending (see below). Hosted the Digital Lending Summit and now hosting the Digital Lenders Forum.

Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) – An academic consortium of universities that are in the Big Ten Conference.

C       

Call number – A standardized series of letters and numbers that communicate to an interested user where a book lives in a library’s physical stacks. Two of the most common call number schemas in the United States are the Library of Congress Classification System and the Dewey Decimal System.

Catalogue – “A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libraries is also called a union catalog. A bibliographic item can be any information entity (e.g., books, computer files, graphics, realia, cartographic materials, etc.) that is considered library material (e.g., a single novel in an anthology), or a group of library materials (e.g., a trilogy), or linked from the catalog (e.g., a webpage) as far as it is relevant to the catalog and to the users (patrons) of the library.”

Circulation – The function of lending library materials either to institutional patrons or to extrainstitutional libraries/patrons (via interlibrary loan and resource sharing means).

Citation – A formal way to convey where a researcher, author, or the like found information. There are many styles of citations, such as APA, Chicago, and MLA.

Clarivate – A British-American company which operates a variety of information based services. Particularly relevant for the ILL community is Clarivate’s acquisition of ProQuest & Ex Libris.

Clio – A web-based ILL software solution.

Committed to Retain – A shared agreement among a group of libraries to hold certain items for a set period of time in order to ensure a specified amount of circulating copies among the group of libraries.

Compact Disc (CD) – “The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and is capable of holding uncompressed stereo audio. First released in Japan in October 1982, the CD was the second optical disc format to reach the market, following the larger LaserDisc (LD). In later years, the technology was adapted for computer data storage as CD-ROM and subsequently expanded into various writable and multimedia formats. As of 2007, over 200 billion CDs (including audio CDs, CD-ROMs, and CD-Rs) had been sold worldwide.”

Consortium/Consortia – “A library consortium is any cooperative association of libraries that coordinates resources and/or activities on behalf of its members, whether they are academic, public, school or special libraries, and/or information centers. Library consortia have been created to service specific regions or geographic areas, e.g., local, state, regional, national or international. Many libraries commonly belong to multiple consortia. The goal of a library consortium is to amplify the capabilities and effectiveness of its member libraries through collective action, including, but not limited to, print or electronic resource sharing, reducing costs through group purchases of resources, and hosting professional development opportunities. The “bedrock principle upon which consortia operate is that libraries can accomplish more together than alone.””

Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) – “Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) is a modern method for libraries to loan digitized items from their print collection to their patrons in a “lend like print” fashion (Controlled Digital Lending, 2018). Using this method libraries digitize an owned physical item from their collection, then lend out this secured digital version to one user at a time while the original, printed copy, is simultaneously made unavailable to other users. Technical controls in CDL interactions ensure a consistent ‘owned-to-loaned’ ratio, meaning the library circulates the exact number of copies of a specific title it owns, regardless of format, putting controls in place to prevent users from redistributing or copying the digitized version.”

Controlled Vocabulary – “Refers to an established list, organized arrangement, or database of preferred terms and phrases (usually subject or genre/form terms) in which all terms and phrases representing a concept are brought together. A controlled vocabulary is usually listed alphabetically in a subject headings list or thesaurus of indexing terms.” – link here

CONTU Guidelines – “The members of the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (“CONTU”) negotiated guidelines that described what amounts of copying would substitute for a subscription to or purchase of such work, a critical measurement in the balance… the CONTU Guidelines only apply to newer articles, those published fewer than five years before the date of the request, and small parts of other works, and do not define what would substitute for subscriptions to older materials or entire works under Section 108 (e). There are no guidelines for these.” – link here

Copyright – “Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression. In copyright law, there are a lot of different types of works, including paintings, photographs, illustrations, musical compositions, sound recordings, computer programs, books, poems, blog posts, movies, architectural works, plays, and so much more!”

Copyright Clearance Center – “Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is a U.S. company based in Danvers, Massachusetts,(although it is incorporated in New York State), that provides collective copyright licensing services for corporate and academic users of copyrighted materials. CCC procures agreements with rightsholders, primarily academic publishers, and then acts as their agent in arranging collective licensing for institutions and one-time licensing for document delivery services, coursepacks, and other access and uses of texts.”

Course Reserves – “Course reserve is a term used in academic libraries to describe materials set aside for a specific academic course or other use. Most often materials are put on course reserve by library staff at the request of the course’s instructor. Materials on reserve typically have shorter loan periods than other library materials to allow access to a high volume of library patrons – for example, the students taking the course in question. Reserve materials usually return to normal circulation at the end of the term.”

CrossLink – “IDS Network’s CrossLink is a middleware server-based solution that allows for discovery and availability lookups across multiple cataloging systems and provides a connection between the borrowing and lending libraries’ resource sharing systems, regardless of which types they are. This brokering system will allow libraries that have become siloed due to cost cutting and reduction in use of resource sharing systems to maintain services to their patrons while sharing their materials with other libraries.”

D       

Database – “A library database is a searchable electronic index of published, reliable resources. Databases provide access to a wealth of useful research materials from academic journals, newspapers, and magazines. Some databases also include e-books, relevant Web resources, and various multimedia.”

De minimis exemption – “De minimis is Latin, meaning something is “trifling or of little importance,” according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. Dating back to the Tariff Act of 1930, the rule has let people avoid paying import tariffs and taxes on items of small value and minimized customs processing, including inspections… The U.S. de minimis threshold used to be $200 — that is, packages worth $200 or less were not subject to taxes and tariffs. But in 2016, the country raised the threshold sharply to $800, one of the highest in the world. The spike came out of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, signed by then-President Barack Obama.”

Digital Divide – “There is no one digital divide. At a high level, the digital divide is the gap between those with Internet access and those without it. But the digital divide is multifaceted and includes many factors such as access, affordability, quality, and relevance.”

Digital Lenders Forum – “BLC is excited to announce the launch of the Digital Lenders Forum, a conversation series about shaping the future of digital lending in libraries. The Digital Lenders Forum brings together library innovators and practitioners to spark practical solutions and visionary ideas that will drive actionable change across the digital lending ecosystem.”

Digital Lending Toolkit – “Boston Library Consortium (BLC)’s Digital Lending Toolkit, [is] a comprehensive resource designed to support libraries and consortia in navigating the evolving landscape of digital resource sharing.”

Digital Object Identifier (DOI) – “A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they also fit within the URI system (Uniform Resource Identifier). They are widely used to identify academic, professional, and government information, such as journal articles, research reports, data sets, and official publications.“

Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) – “The DVD (digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format… DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and less commonly in DVD-Audio consumer digital audio format, as well as for authoring DVD discs written in a special AVCHD format to hold high definition material (often in conjunction with AVCHD format camcorders). DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs.”

Dissertation – “Based in the scientific method of inquiry, a dissertation is an independent research project required in a doctoral program. Students explore a specific research question within their field of study to produce a comprehensive written document based on their findings. Students select a dissertation topic of interest aligned with the requirements set by each school, department, and program.“

Document Delivery – “Requesting and receiving copies of documents, generally that the library doesn’t own. This can include articles, chapters from a book, and other kinds of documents. Usually it is delivered as a digital document. Generally, this type of requesting is also done between libraries, or between a library and a document delivery service. The library or service that provides the document does not necessarily interact directly with the patron. The terms “electronic ILL” or “digital ILL” are sometimes used interchangeably with document delivery, even though this is not necessarily really a ‘loan’.”

Digital Rights Management (DRM) – “Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures, such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies govern the use, modification and distribution of copyrighted works (e.g. software, multimedia content) and of systems that enforce these policies within devices. DRM technologies include licensing agreements and encryption.”

DRM-free – “DRM-free refers to a method of digital content distribution where digital rights management (DRM) technology is not used.”

Document Delivery and Resource Sharing Section (DDRS) – A professional section in IFLA. “DDRS is concerned with making information in all formats available throughout the world through resource sharing and document supply techniques. The Section’s primary objective is to extend and improve document delivery and interlending both nationally and internationally through the use of new technologies and increased cooperation among libraries and document suppliers. The Section monitors developments and provides information to its membership through its website, social media outlets, programs at IFLA conferences, support of document delivery workshops, and cooperative projects with international organizations.”

DVD Region Codes – “DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to the appropriate region.”

E       

eBook Lending Tracker – “The E-Book ILL Lender Tracker allows libraries to self-report the publishers and e-book collections they are able to lend through interlibrary loan. Originally conceived and developed by Dev Singer of Brandeis University, BLC hosts and stewards this resource on behalf of the global resource sharing community.”

Electronic Book (eBook) – “An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as ‘an electronic version of a printed book’, some e-books exist without a printed equivalent. E-books can be read on dedicated e-reader devices, also on any computer device that features a controllable viewing screen, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.”

Electronic Reserves – ”Many academic libraries are installing software and supporting availability of course readings in digital formats through a service referred to as ‘E-reserves.’ The service provides controlled access to materials in a digital format but limited to students in a specific course. Such services are often connected to other classroom services for collaboration and course management.”

Embargo – “In academic publishing, an embargo is a period during which access to academic journals is not allowed to users who have not paid for access (or have access through their institution). The purpose of this is to ensure publishers have revenue to support their activities, although the impact of embargoes on publishers is hotly debated, with some studies finding no impact while publisher experience suggests otherwise. A 2012 survey of libraries by the Association of Learned, Professional, and Society Publishers on the likelihood of journal cancellations in cases where most of the content was made freely accessible after six months suggests there would be a major negative impact on subscriptions, but this result has been debated.”

Emerging Nations Article Exchange Program (ENAEP) – “The purpose of this program is to provide free access to articles from the Library of Congress collection via interlibrary loan for which the Loan and Reader Registration Section would normally charge libraries outside the USA, a fee of $16 dollars. The Interlibrary Loan Office noticed that the majority of the international requests came from Europe with a few from the East Pacific, especially Australia. There seemed to be a disparity in ILL requests due to financial reasons. For this pilot program, libraries from emerging nations with a GDP-PPP of less than $31,000 according to Global Finance Magazine will be able to request articles from periodicals and books.”

Ex Libris Northeast User Group (ENUG) – “The Ex Libris Northeast User Group is a regional group consisting of users from institutions using Ex Libris, Inc. products (most notably Voyager, Aleph, Alma, Primo, and SFX) in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. We have active group member participation by many Ex Libris product users from those states. If you can make it to the meetings, you are welcome.”

EPUB – “EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ‘.epub’ file extension. The term is short for electronic publication and is sometimes stylized as ePUB. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartphones, tablets, and computers. EPUB is a technical standard published by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). It became an official standard of the IDPF in September 2007, superseding the older Open eBook (OEB) standard.”

Ex Libris Group – “Ex Libris Group is an Israeli software company that develops integrated library systems and other library software.” Some of the software it develops includes Alma, Primo, and Rapido.

EZProxy – “EZproxy allows libraries to deliver e-resources to users simply and securely no matter where or when they’re searching. EZproxy was built to advance the crucial role libraries play in protecting patron privacy and influencing learning outcomes, making it a trusted e-resource access and authentication solution. Thousands of libraries in over 100 countries use EZproxy to facilitate secure, reliable access to e-resources.”

EZBorrow – “The EZBorrow Service has been the keystone service of the PALCI Consortium for more than 20 years. It is an expedited interlibrary loan service that allows students, faculty, and staff at the participating institutions to discover, request, and borrow books and other physical library materials from more than 70 college and university member libraries in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia.”

F       

Fair Use –  “Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests of copyright holders with the public interest in the wider distribution and use of creative works by allowing as a defense to copyright infringement claims certain limited uses that might otherwise be considered infringement.”

Four Factors/Pillars of Fair Use – “Unfortunately, the only way to get a definitive answer on whether a particular use is a fair use is to have it resolved in federal court. Judges use four factors to resolve fair use disputes… It’s important to understand that these factors are only guidelines that courts are free to adapt to particular situations on a case‑by‑case basis. In other words, a judge has a great deal of freedom when making a fair use determination, so the outcome in any given case can be hard to predict.

The four factors judges consider are:

•     the purpose and character of your use
•     the nature of the copyrighted work
•     the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
•     the effect of the use upon the potential market.”

Full-text – “Full-text resources are resources within [a] library’s online databases that you can access and view immediately. They include ebooks, journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, dissertations and theses, images, photographs, and more.”

G       

Google Books – “Google Books… is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition (OCR), and stored in its digital database. Books are provided either by publishers and authors through the Google Books Partner Program, or by Google’s library partners through the Library Project. Additionally, Google has partnered with a number of magazine publishers to digitize their archives.”

Google Scholar – “Google Scholar (GS) is a free academic search engine that can be thought of as the academic version of Google. Rather than searching all of the indexed information on the web, it searches repositories of:

•     publishers
•     universities
•     scholarly websites

This is generally a smaller subset of the pool that Google searches. It’s all done automatically, but most of the search results tend to be reliable scholarly sources.

However, Google is typically less careful about what it includes in search results than more curated, subscription-based academic databases like Scopus and Web of Science.”

H       

Harmonized Tariff Schedule Codes – “The HTS comprises a hierarchical structure for describing all goods in trade for duty, quota, and statistical purposes. This structure is based upon the international Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS), administered by the World Customs Organization in Brussels ; the 4- and 6-digit HS product categories are subdivided into 8-digit unique U.S. rate lines and 10-digit non-legal statistical reporting categories. Classification of goods in this system must be done in accordance with the General and Additional U.S. Rules of Interpretation, starting at the 4-digit heading level to find the most specific provision and then moving to the subordinate categories.”

Hachette v. Internet Archive – “Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, No. 20-cv-4160 (JGK), 664 F.Supp.3d 370 (S.D.N.Y. 2023), WL 2623787 (S.D.N.Y. 2023), was a case in which the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York determined that the Internet Archive, a registered library, committed copyright infringement by scanning and lending complete copies of certain books through controlled digital lending mechanisms. Stemming from the creation of the National Emergency Library (NEL) during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing companies Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Wiley alleged that the Internet Archive’s Open Library and National Emergency Library facilitated copyright infringement of their books.

The case primarily concerns the fair use of controlled digital lending (CDL) of complete copies of certain books owned by the publishing companies that were party to the case. The case does not concern the display of short passages, limited page views, search results, books out of copyright, out of print, or books without an ebook version currently for sale.”

Hallucinated Citation – A type of bibliographic citation provided by a generative AI tool, such as ChatGPT, which does not correspond to a real academic or scholarly work.

HathiTrust – “HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries, administered by the University of Michigan. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally by libraries.”

Holdings – “Libraries refer to the items they own as “holdings”. When you look in a library catalog to see what books or DVDs a library has, you are looking at the catalog of the library’s holdings.“

HTML – “HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard language used to create and structure web pages. It uses tags and elements to define headings, paragraphs, images, links, and other components that browsers display on the screen.”

I       

IDS Network – “The Information Delivery Services (IDS) Network, based in New York, is a mutually supportive resource-sharing cooperative whose 120 members include public and private academic libraries from across the country, the New York Public Library, and the New York State Library (view a list of current members). The IDS Network is based on a strong sense of community among its members and a unified collection perspective. The major goal of the Network is to continually implement and objectively evaluate innovative resource-sharing strategies, policies and procedures that will optimize mutual access to the information resources of all IDS Network libraries. Member libraries sign annual contracts committing to a common set of performance standards.”

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) – “The Federation is an independent, international, non-governmental, not-for-profit, public benefit organisation which advances the interests of library and information associations, libraries and information services, librarians and the communities they serve throughout the world.

Formed in 1927, the Federation has its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.

To achieve its purpose, the Federation seeks to:

•     promote high standards of delivery of library and information services and professional practice, as well as the accessibility, protection, and preservation of documentary cultural heritage. This is done through the enhancement of professional education, the development of professional standards, the dissemination of best practice and the advancement of relevant scientific and professional knowledge;
•     encourage widespread understanding of the value and importance of high quality library and information services in the public, private and voluntary sectors;
•     represent the interests of its Members and library and information organizations and the communities they serve throughout the world.”

IFLA Vouchers – “The IFLA Voucher Scheme makes it easy for you to pay for your international interlibrary (ILL) requests by using a voucher instead of money. While many libraries now use electronic payments for their interlibrary requests, there are still libraries and countries where this is difficult. IFLA’s vouchers enable all libraries to provide interlibrary requests to the benefit of their users.”

Interlibrary Loan Fee Management (IFM) – “Unique to OCLC, the Interlibrary Loan Fee Management (IFM) feature of WorldShare ILL lets you reconcile resource-sharing charges and payments through your monthly OCLC invoice. Participating libraries report an average savings of more than 45 USD on each request through the elimination of invoices and check writing for individual transactions.”

ILL-L – “A discussion forum for all topics related to resource sharing among libraries.” Managed by OCLC.

ILLiad – “ILLiad provides a robust patron management and request interface. It supports the use of customized workflows developed specifically for individual libraries. ILLiad also allows unlimited templates for patron e-mail notifications, book straps, labels and letters, all of which can be customized.” Developed by Atlas Systems Inc., now distributed by OCLC.

Information Literacy – “Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (American Library Association. Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. https://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential) To be information literate, then, one needs skills not only in research but in critical thinking.”

Information Need – “An information need is a gap in understanding or knowledge which a person seeks to fill with facts, data, or ideas from an information source. Information needs arise for many reasons. People seek information to satisfy a curiosity, to make a decision, to complete a task or assignment, and to solve problems.“

Information Overload – “Information overload refers to the overwhelming amount of data that individuals encounter daily, primarily due to the rapid advancements in technology and communication. This phenomenon has historical roots, with concerns about excessive information dating back to the 1930s. The term gained prominence in the 1970s, when author Alvin Toffler warned of the negative effects of being inundated with data, suggesting it could lead to withdrawal from social interactions. Today, the sheer volume of information—ranging from emails and social media updates to abundant product choices in stores—creates challenges for effective processing and retention.”

Intellectual Property (IP) – “IP includes copyrightable creative works as soon as an author fixes their work in a tangible form of expression. IP also includes inventions protected by patents, brands protected by trademarks, and commercially valuable information protected under trade secret law.”

Interlibrary Delivery Service of Pennsylvania (IDS of PA) – “The Interlibrary Delivery Service (IDS) of Pennsylvania’s purpose is to provide a cost effective efficient delivery service linking all types of libraries to support timely resource sharing throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As an incorporated not-for-profit membership organization, IDS is supported by a state/local partnership which includes a state subsidy and local dues. Through IDS, member libraries share print and non-print library resources to meet the information needs of end users. Currently, IDS membership includes 409 libraries which comprise the service area of the Interlibrary Delivery Service of Pennsylvania. This total includes 181 Full Member libraries and 228 sites which are Affiliates of Full Member (“Parent”) libraries.“

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) – “As defined by the Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States (see sidebar), ‘Interlibrary loan is the process by which a library requests material from, or supplies material to, another library. … The purpose of interlibrary loan as defined by this code is to obtain, upon request of a library user, material not available in the user’s local library.’

Libraries should follow the Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States, originally approved in 1917 and most recently revised in 2015 by the Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee of the Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section (STARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association.  Revisions were approved by the RUSA Board of Directors on January 11, 2016.  The ILL Code was also published in the Summer 2016 issue of the official RUSA journal, Reference & User Services Quarterly (v.55 no. 4, pp.306-307).  The Explanatory Supplement accompanies the U.S. ILL Code and is intended to amplify specific sections, providing fuller explanation and specific examples.

The U.S. ILL Code is intended to provide guidelines for exchanges between libraries in the United States when no other agreement applies.  The Code does not override individual, consortial, state, or regional agreements which may be more liberal or more prescriptive.”

International Interlibrary Loan Toolkit – A crowd-sourced effort to centralize best practices and tips for participating in international interlibrary loan. Managed by the ALA RUSA STARS International ILL Committee.

International Standard Book Number (ISBN) – “An ISBN is an International Standard Book Number. ISBNs were 10 digits in length up to the end of December 2006, but since 1 January 2007 they now always consist of 13 digits. ISBNs are calculated using a specific mathematical formula and include a check digit to validate the number.”

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) – “An ISSN is an 8-digit code used to identify newspapers, journals, magazines and periodicals of all kinds and on all media–print and electronic… An ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) identifies all continuing resources, irrespective of their medium (print or electronic).”

Internet Archive – “The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, people with print disabilities, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge… As our web archive grew, so did our commitment to providing digital versions of other published works. Today our archive contains:

•     916 billion web pages
•     49 million books and texts
•     13 million audio recordings (including 268,000 live concerts)
•     10 million videos (including 3 million Television News programs)
•     5 million images
•     1 million software programs

Anyone with a free account can upload media to the Internet Archive. We work with thousands of partners globally to save copies of their work into special collections.”

ISO 18626 – “ISO 18626 Information and documentation – Interlibrary Loan Transactions succeeds ISO 10160, ISO 10161-1 and ISO 10161-2. Unlike its predecessor, ISO 18626 is well suited to the modern, Web-based technological environment which is based on XML and Web services. Another important difference between the two standards is that while the old standard is based on a 1980s model of ILL transactions, its successor is based on and supports much simpler exchange of transactions.“

J       

Journal – “A scholarly journal (also referred to as academic journals, scientific journals, or peer-reviewed journals) is a periodical that contains original research articles written by experts in a particular field of study. The articles are intended to be read by other experts or students of the field. Some examples are: American Journal of Psychology, American Sociological Review, and Journal of Research in Childhood Education.”

Just-in-case vs. Just-in-time – “At times a subjective practice, academic collection development relies on the professional knowledge of librarians to select material tailored to course curriculums and the anticipated demands of library users. Favoring a broad approach, libraries often apply a ‘just-in-case’ collection model. Purchasing in excess, libraries acquire books for the potential they might someday offer..… libraries are adopting a ‘just-in-time’ model. The general premise for the model dictates that patron demand is the primary impetus for acquisition and the purchase process remains delayed until the user requires access to the title. Known by a variety of derivatives, including patron-driven acquisition or demand-driven acquisition, the process relies on immediate user needs to reveal a collection’s deficiencies and rectify the issues through a library purchase.“

K       

Keywords – “Keywords are search terms that express the essence of your topic. They are crucial to an effective search, especially in library databases.”

L       

Lender/Supplier – The institution/library in an interlibrary loan transaction that is lending or supplying an item to a borrowing/receiving library.

License – A legal agreement between libraries and publishers to provide access to specified content for a defined period of time.

Library Anxiety – “Library anxiety refers to the fear or apprehension individuals may experience when using a library for research purposes. This phenomenon was first identified in the 1970s and notably studied by Constance A. Mellon in the mid-1980s. Her research revealed that a significant majority of college students felt anxious about their library skills and were often reluctant to seek help from librarians due to feelings of inferiority. This anxiety can stem from various factors, including the overwhelming scale of library resources and the perception that their research skills are inadequate, particularly among new university students and first-generation college students.”

Library Carpentry – “Library Carpentry develops and teaches workshops on the computational skills needed to efficiently handle and explore large volumes of information. Our mission is to empower people working in library- and information-related roles to use software and data in their own work and to become advocates for and train others in efficient, effective and reproducible data and software practices. The target audience of Library Carpentry is librarians and other information professionals with little to no previous experience with computational methods.”

Library Juice Academy – “Library Juice Academy offers a range of online professional development workshops for librarians and other library staff. While LIS programs teach the theoretical foundations of librarianship, and on-the-job learning tends to deal with specific tools, our courses are on broader, practical topics. Emphasis is on student interaction with instructors and with each other, supported by a variety of class assignments and reading materials. The instructors are librarians and LIS faculty who have developed specialized knowledge in the subjects they teach. Our workshops earn Continuing Education Units, and are intended as professional development activities.”

Library of Congress – “For libraries in the U.S., the Library of Congress serves as a source for material not available through local, state or regional libraries. Requests are accepted from academic, public, and special libraries that in turn make their own material available through participation in an interlibrary loan system. Participation is usually indicated by membership in one of the major U.S. bibliographic networks (OCLC, SHARES) or by a listing in the American Library Directory (Bowker) or the Directory of Special Libraries and Information Centers (Gale).”

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) – “The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) comprise a thesaurus (in the information science sense, a controlled vocabulary) of subject headings, maintained by the United States Library of Congress, for use in bibliographic records. LC Subject Headings are an integral part of bibliographic control, which is the function by which libraries collect, organize, and disseminate documents. It was first published in 1898, a year after the publication of Library of Congress Classification (1897). The last print edition was published in 2016. Access to the continuously revised vocabulary is now available via subscription and free services.“

Library Futures – “Librarians and library staff are already experts at providing free and unfettered access to critical information, tools, and resources for their community members. But in our increasingly digital world, accelerated technological innovation and unjust laws governing digital rights require librarians, policymakers, and community leaders to confront new challenges that will shape the future of libraries and our society.

Library Futures believes librarians, community leaders, and policymakers can and should be knowledgeable about:

•     the effects of current policy on libraries’ digital rights,
•     the opportunities and threats digital access holds for libraries,
•     and how to advocate for current and future digital rights policy that better serves their communities.

Through fresh research, visionary policy and advocacy initiatives, and engaging education efforts, Library Futures empowers these critical audiences with the information and resources they need to protect, advocate for, and advance a fair digital future for libraries and the communities they serve.”

Library-use Only – A term of agreement in an ILL transaction that states the supplying library is willing to lend a material to a borrowing library, but only if that material stays within the library throughout the duration of its loan period. The patron may access the material during the borrowing library’s hours of operation, but cannot physically remove the book from the library premises. Sometimes lending libraries request that library-use only items are accessible only under the supervision of a librarian.

Literature Review – “A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.”

M       

Magazine – “A magazine is a periodical aimed at a specific audience, covering recent issues and specific subjects through articles, interviews, and personal narratives. Articles are often written by professional writers with or without expertise in the subject and contain ‘secondary’ discussion of events, usually with little documentation (e.g. footnotes or bibliography). Magazines use vocabulary understandable to most people, and often have lots of eye-catching illustrations. Some examples are National Geographic, Time, and Popular Mechanics.”

Marrakesh Treaty – “The WIPO-administered Marrakesh Treaty makes the production and international transfer of specially-adapted books for people with blindness or visual impairments easier. It does this by establishing a set of limitations and exceptions to traditional copyright law. The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013, and entered into force on September 30, 2016.”

Microfiche – “Microfiche is a card made of transparent film used to store printed information in miniaturized form. To read the card, one places it under the lens of a microfiche reader machine, which magnifies it.”

Microfilm – “Microfilm is a 35mm film on which printed materials are photographed at greatly reduced size for ease of storage. The digital lens on the microfilm reader enlarges the image, allowing you to read the contents.”

Microform – “Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, often newspapers and journals. They are usually in the form of a microfilm reel or microfiche, which is a flat film sheet. Microforms help the library save space when archiving lesser-used resources. Microform reading machines magnify these scaled-down reproductions, and allow you to make copies.”

Modern Language Association (MLA) Style – “MLA is a style of documentation that may be applied to many different types of writing. Since texts have become increasingly digital, and the same document may often be found in several different sources, following a set of rigid rules no longer suffices. Thus, the current system is based on a few guiding principles, rather than an extensive list of specific rules. While the handbook still describes how to cite sources, it is organized according to the process of documentation, rather than by the sources themselves. This gives writers a flexible method that is near-universally applicable.”

N       

Net Neutrality – “Network neutrality means applying well-established ‘common carrier’ rules to the internet in order to preserve its freedom and openness. Common carriage prohibits the owner of a network that holds itself out to all-comers from discriminating against information by halting, slowing, or otherwise tampering with the transfer of any data (except for legitimate network management purposes such as easing congestion or blocking spam).

Important Fact: Common carriage is not a new concept — these rules have a centuries-old history. They have long been applied to facilities central to the public life and economy of our nation, including canal systems, railroads, public highways, and telegraph and telephone networks.”

Newspaper – “A newspaper is a publication that is periodically published (daily or weekly) that presents news and informative articles. In the past, newspapers were only published on paper, usually of the cheapest quality possible to make them affordable to the public and profitable for the publisher as well. Nowadays you can still find newspapers in their traditional form (paper based) or online.”

National Information Standards Organization (NISO) – “Founded in 1939, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is an industry-based, nonprofit, non-governmental association. NISO is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to identify, develop, maintain, and publish voluntary, consensus-based standards for managing information. NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning… NISO standards focus on content creation and curation, discovery and interchange, analytics and business processes that facilitate content exchange. Critical to the adoption of these technologies is building awareness and support for these solutions through education. NISO’s educational programs include free, written content on the NISO website, webinars, open teleconferences, in-person and virtual conferences.”

Non-returnable – An item provided in an interlibrary loan transaction by a supplying library that is not expected to be returned by the receiving library (for example, digital book chapters and journal articles). Sometimes these items are physical, as in the case of being sent a printed hard copy of a journal article by a supplying library.

O       

Open Access – “Open access is a broad international movement that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data. A publication is defined ‘open access’ when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing it – that is to say when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within the information, or use it in education or in any other way within the legal agreements.

Open access is a publishing model for scholarly communication that makes research information available to readers at no cost, as opposed to the traditional subscription model in which readers have access to scholarly information by paying a subscription (usually via libraries).”

OCLC – “OCLC is a global library organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large. We are librarians, technologists, researchers, pioneers, leaders, and learners. With thousands of library members in more than 100 countries, we come together as OCLC to make information more accessible and more useful.”

• See comprehensive OCLC glossary here

Odyssey – “Odyssey is a protocol used by ILLiad systems to send electronic documents that have been requested by other institutions directly from ILLiad Server to ILLiad Server. ILLiad includes the ability to electronically send and receive articles to/from the Odyssey stand-alone client as well as from other ILLiad servers. For institutions not already using ILLiad, please contact support@atlas-sys.com to obtain a copy of the Odyssey standalone client file at no cost.”

Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) –  “The online public access catalog (OPAC), now frequently synonymous with library catalog, is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Online catalogs have largely replaced the analog card catalogs previously used in libraries.”

Ownership vs. Licensing – “In the past several years, we have seen a dramatic digital shift by book publishers and ebook platforms away from traditional sales toward licensing content, particularly to the public sector, such as libraries. Licensing has resulted in a deeply broken system around ebook lending, impeding libraries from serving the needs of their communities while also creating critical access issues. This means that significant collections, archives, and repositories of digital content are inaccessible, unaffordable, or subject to exploitative terms that make it difficult for libraries to purchase materials to lend and preserve. A small group of large publishers and distributors dominate the ebook market and charge high costs for digital resources, forcing libraries to license rather than own works as they have traditionally with print resources.”

P       

The Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration & Innovation (PALCI) – “The PALCI organization was originally founded as the ‘Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc.,” and was formed in 1996 as a grassroots federation of 35 academic libraries in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Today, we’re known as Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration & Innovation, with a growing membership consisting of more than 70 academic and research libraries, in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, West Virginia, and New York. Our partner institutions vary widely in size and mission. Libraries in PALCI have holdings in excess of 144 million and a combined FTE of more than 500,000 students.”

Periodical – “A periodical is a publication that comes out periodically, such as a magazine, journal, or newspaper.“

Portable Document Format (PDF) – “The Portable Document Format (commonly known as “PDF”) is a file format developed in the early 1990s as a way to share computer documents, including text formatting and inline images.

PDF technology was designed to allow for presentation of documents independent of the application software, operating system and hardware used to create them. PDF files encapsulate a complete description of a fixed-layout document, including the text, fonts, graphics, and other information needed to display it. PDF files may also include a wide variety of other content, from hyperlinks to metadata to logical structure to JavaScript and attached files, that allow the format to meet a wide variety of functional and workflow requirements for electronic documents.”

Pre-print – “A preprint is a manuscript prepared for publication as a journal article that gets shared prior to peer review by a journal. Publishing preprints enables the immediate sharing of research results so the searcher doesn’t have to wait so long to find out about research that’s already been done.”

Project Gutenberg – “Project Gutenberg is an online library of more than 75,000 free eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related content today. Since then, thousands of volunteers have digitized and diligently proofread the world’s literature. The entire Project Gutenberg collection is yours to enjoy. All Project Gutenberg eBooks are completely free and always will be.”

Public Domain – “The term ‘public domain’ refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.”

Public Domain Image Archive – An online database of out-of-copyright works available to anyone with internet access.

Publisher – “A publisher is an individual, organization, or company responsible for producing and distributing printed or digital content to the public. Publishers bring books, magazines, newspapers, journals, and other forms of literature to readers.“

Q       

R       

RapidILL – “RapidILL, designed by librarians for librarians, streamlines and automates interlibrary loan processes, reduces turnaround time, and cuts costs.

As a resource sharing system uniquely built around a community of reciprocal users, RapidILL has an outstanding request fulfillment rate of 95% and an average delivery time of less than 12 hours for digital assets.

This is primarily the result of a mutual commitment by every institution in the RapidILL community to 24-hour turnaround times and free-of-charge ILL transactions. The innovative tools, workflows and technology of RapidILL, now part of the Ex Libris family of solutions, make those transactions seamless, transparent and cost-effective for all participating libraries.”

Rapido – “Rapido is a discovery-to-delivery library resource sharing platform focused on staff efficiency and patron services that offer streamlined workflows by automating processing, reducing mediation, and freeing up staff time to handle more complex requests.”

• See comprehensive Rapido glossary here

Recall – Supplying libraries retain the right to recall loaned returnables from borrowing libraries at any time.

Research Solutions – “Research Solutions, Inc. provides cloud-based technologies to streamline the process of discovering, accessing, managing, and analyzing scientific content.“

ReShare – “The ReShare Community is a group of libraries, consortia, information organizations, and developers, with both commercial and non-commercial interests, who came together in 2018 to create Project ReShare – an open approach to library resource sharing systems.

The ReShare Community has a bold vision for building a user-centered, app-based, community-owned resource sharing platform for libraries. ReShare members aim to set a new standard for connecting library patrons to the resources and information they seek.”

Resource Sharing – Alternative signifier for Interlibrary Loan (ILL); see above.

Resource Sharing Voluntary Document Delivery (RSCVD) Initiative – Both a web-based resource sharing solution and a shared community of practice, RSCVD offers a no cost and fee-free means of sharing non-returnables around the world.

Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative – “The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative started in the U.S. in 2005 with a white paper written by a group of librarians, product vendors and library technology specialists. While working on revising resource sharing technical standards, they began to feel as though they were trying to improve a protocol that was becoming increasingly obsolete… he Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative (RRSI) has returned after an extended hiatus following the COVID-19 pandemic. Through University of Kansas Resource Sharing Librarian Lars Leon’s efforts before his retirement in the Spring 2025, a small group of committed people in the resource sharing community convened in the Summer 2025. We are now discussing ways to reinvigorate the Initiative and engage with the resource sharing community.”

Returnables – Library materials provided by a lending library to a borrowing library. These materials are often physical and expected to be returned when the loan period ends.

RUSA – “The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) is a division of the American Library Association. RUSA serves all types of libraries in reference, user services, adult readers advisory and collection development as well as resource sharing, genealogy and archives, business reference and reference technology.

RUSA has six specialty sections that are free to RUSA members: BRASS (Business Reference and Services Section), CODES (Collection Development and Evaluation Section) HS (History Section), ETS (Emerging Technologies Section), RSS (Reference Services Section) and STARS (Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section).”

S       

Shared Retention – “A collective collection, also known as a shared print program, involves primarily academic or research libraries collaborating to retain, develop, and provide access to their physical collections. Most collective collections include monographs and/or serials. Other efforts have addressed acquisition and/or retention of microform, federal government documents, and digital collections.”

Search Engine  – “A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on the Web in response to a user’s query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the search results are typically presented as a list of hyperlinks accompanied by textual summaries and images. Users also have the option of limiting a search to specific types of results, such as images, videos, or news.“

Search Strategy – “A search strategy is an organised structure of key terms used to search a database. The search strategy combines the key concepts of your search question in order to retrieve accurate results.”

Serial – “A serial is a publication, such as a magazine, newspaper, or scholarly journal, that is published in ongoing installments.“

SHARES – “SHARES, the resource sharing consortium of the OCLC Research Library Partnership, unites trusted partners that provide low-cost access to their diverse collections. SHARES also supports resource sharing innovation and best practices… SHARES is managed by the SHARES Executive Group. Affiliation with the OCLC Research Library Partnership is a prerequisite to joining SHARES.”

STARS – A section of ALA’s RUSA. “STARS addresses the interests of librarians and library staff involved with interlibrary loan, document delivery, remote circulation, access services, cooperative reference, cooperative collection development, remote storage, and other shared library services as well as providers of products and services which support resource sharing.”

Subject Heading –  “Subject Heading is defined as the most specific word or group of words that captures the essence of the subject or one of the subjects of a book or other library material (e.g. serial, sound recording, moving image, cartographic material, manuscript, computer file, e-resource etc.) which is selected from a subject heading list containing the preferred subject access terms (controlled vocabulary) and assigned as an added entry in the bibliographic record which works as an access point and enables the work to be searched and retrieved by subject from the library catalog database. Subject headings are also used in a bibliography and index.”

T       

Tariff – “Tariffs are taxes imposed by a government on goods and services imported from other countries. Think of tariff like an extra cost added to foreign products when they enter the country. They’re usually a percentage of the price of the goods. The level of the tariff will affect the significance of its impacts.”

Tipasa – “Tipasa® is a cloud-based interlibrary loan (ILL) management system that simplifies resource sharing complexities with an easy-to-use interface for ILL staff and a straightforward experience for library users… Tipasa builds on WorldShare® ILL with enhanced functionality, like copyright management, automation tools, and system integrations—ideal for libraries managing a high-volume of ILL.”

Title Page – “The title page of a book, thesis or other written work is the page at or near the front which displays its title, subtitle, author, publisher, and edition, often artistically decorated. (A half title, by contrast, displays only the title of a work.) The title page is one of the most important parts of the ‘front matter’ or ‘preliminaries’ of a book, as the data on it and its verso (together known as the “title leaf”) are used to establish the ‘title proper and usually, though not necessarily, the statement of responsibility and the data relating to publication’. This determines the way the book is cited in library catalogs and academic references.”

U       

V       

Vendor lock-in – Becoming dependent on a specific vendor’s software solutions to the point where it is prohibitive to transition away from said solution.

Verso –  “A title verso page is usually behind the title page and includes Copyright information about that book such as ISBN, publication date and place of publication, disclaimers, cover design details, and editor details.”

Vinyl Record – “A vinyl record is an analogue sound storage medium, which is a flat disc made of a compound containing polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The disc then has a spiral groove pressed into its surface, which contains the audio.

In order to hear the audio from the record, the disc must be placed onto a turntable and a playing stylus attached to the tone arm is placed in the groove of the disc. The record player then rotates the disc at a constant speed, and the stylus needle is made to vibrate by micro undulations along the groove of the record. A transducer converts these vibrations into electric impulses which are amplified and sent to speakers or headphones which allows the listener to hear the recorded sound.”

W       

WorldCat – “WorldCat.org is a resource for locating unique, trustworthy materials that you often can’t find anywhere except in a library. By connecting thousands of libraries’ collections in one place, WorldCat.org makes it easy for you to browse the world’s libraries from one search box.

Search WorldCat.org for information on almost any topic: from science to cooking to history and genealogy. Here, you’ll find out which libraries own bestsellers and one-of-a-kind items like family histories, photos, and other unique materials. A search on WorldCat.org delivers a single set of search results that integrates information about relevant library resources to support your information needs.

WorldCat.org is provided by OCLC, a nonprofit global library organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs so libraries can better fuel learning, research, and innovation.”

X       

Y       

Z       

Zine – “A zine is a self-published, non-commercial print-work that is typically produced in small, limited batches. Zines are created and bound in many ways, but traditionally editions are made by hand and easily reproduced. This often happens by crafting an original “master flat” on paper or screen, and then printing/photocopying, folding, and stapling the pages into simple pamphlets. Zines may also be sewn, taped, glued—or even exist in unbound and other non-folio formats.(The main rule is that there are no rules!)”