A college or university offering a library education program meeting standards of the American Library Association and officially accredited by a committee of ALA

Americans with Disabilities Act; this Act gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities; it impacts libraries as service providers and as employers

American Library Association; founded in 1876 to promote library service and librarianship; national conferences are held each year in different parts of the country; American Libraries, published monthly by ALA, provides library related information on a national level

American Library Trustee Association, a division of the American Library Association

1. The organized body of noncurrent records of an organization which are preserved because of their continuing value; 2. The depository itself

Annual Report Information Survey, a required reporting component of the State Aid to Public Libraries program

All aspects involved in using a computer system for such tasks as circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, interlibrary loans, etc.

The cataloging information used to describe and access an item

A list of documents which usually have something in common, such as by a given author or on a given subject

Boston Massachusetts Regional Library System

The process of describing an item in the collection and assigning a classification (call) number

The Massachusetts General Law which provides statutory authority for library services in Massachusetts

The activity of a library in lending materials to borrowers and the recording of these transaction

Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing network

Central Massachusetts Regional Library System

A planned process of selecting and acquiring library materials to meet the needs of a library's community; cooperative collection development refers to a group of libraries working together

Those libraries which, by contract with a regional library system, provide specified service(s) to other libraries within the region

A right of intellectual property, whereby authors obtain, for a limited time, certain exclusive rights to their works; in the United States, copyright is exclusively federal law, and derives from the "copyright clause" of the Constitution (Art. 1, sec.8, cl. 8), which provides Congress with the power "to promote science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to authors...the exclusive right to their...writings"

Central/Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing

The entire collection of information stored in the computer in machine-readable form; e.g., the patron database includes all of the information needed to identify a patron such as name, address, and telephone number

The use of computer equipment and perhaps telecommunications equipment to search specialized databases either inhouse or at a remote location to retrieve information; databases enhance the resources held by a library, allowing a library to quickly locate needed information by electronic means

A library designated to receive all or part of the publications of federal, state, or local governments

Electronic Mail; a system of sending and receiving messages via computer and modem

Friends of Libraries USA, an affiliate of the American Library Association

Hypertext Markup Language; the language used to create Internet web pages

The first page a user sees at an Internet web site

Interlibrary Loan; the loan of material from one library to another

The right of individuals to exercise their freedom of inquiry, exclusive of invasion of privacy; this right is supported by the American Library Association and individual libraries through their commitment to the Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read Statement as the rationale upon which librarians and media specialists should serve the people

A global network of computer networks

International Standard Book Number

Library Administration and Management Association, a division of the American Library Association

Local Area Network; computers hooked together electronically to create one system

Serves as the Library of the United States Congress; due to its resources and leadership, has assumed the role of a national library

Library Incentive Grant; the per capita award component of the State Aid to Public Libraries program

Library Services and Technology Act; federal funds for library services, passed by Congress and signed by the President on September 30, 1996 and authorized for six years, 1997 through 2002; the funds allocated by Congress to this program are distributed to states annually to address the goals of LSTA according to each state's long range plan; LSTA funds are administered in Massachusetts by the Board of Library Commissioners

Municipal Appropriation Requirement; a minimum requirement of the State Aid to Public Libraries program

Machine Readable Cataloging; the international standard format for the storage and exchange of bibliographic data (catalog cards) in machine readable form

Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners

Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications

Printed and audio/video forms of communication, and any necessary equipment required to render them usable

Municipal Equalization Grant; the equalization award component of the State Aid to Public Libraries program

Massachusetts Friends of Libraries

Massachusetts General Laws

Various types of films containing micro images of the texts of newspapers, books, and magazines; microforms are used to conserve space and deter pilferage

Massachusetts Library Association

Massachusetts Library Information Network; the web site of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners

Masters degree in Library and Information Science

Minuteman Library Network

Massachusetts Library Trustees Association

Metrowest Massachusetts Regional Library System

Massachusetts School Library Media Association

Consisting of public, academic, school, special, and institutional libraries and media centers

Merrimack Valley Library Consortium network

A division of the Library of Congress which offers free recorded and Braille-embossed books and magazines to individuals who experience visual and other physical conditions which limit their use of regular print

National Endowment for the Humanities

New England Library Association

A week in April focused on libraries nationwide

New England Library Network

A formal arrangement between libraries or other informational service organizations whereby materials, information, and services are exchanged and made available to potential users; in a technological sense, two or more organizations engaged in information exchange through telecommunications links

Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System

North of Boston Library Exchange

A person not residing within or paying taxes to the governmental unit that provides funding for library service

Nonresident circulation offset; the per transaction award component of the State Aid to Public Libraries program

Online Computer Library Center; a national shared cataloging data service

Old Colony Library Network

Online public access catalog; an automated catalog for patron use

Programs provided by a library to people who are unable to use the library directly because of geographical, physical, mental, or legal restrictions

A publication with a distinctive title intended to appear in successive numbers or parts at stated or regular intervals and, as a rule, for an indefinite time; magazines and newspapers are periodicals

Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association

An arrangement making it possible for a person registered at one library to borrow materials in person from other libraries upon presentation of a library card or other identification validated by the home library

A cooperative arrangement among libraries to make available the resources of a library for use by the patrons of another library, usually through interlibrary loan or reciprocal borrowing

The conversion of previously cataloged library materials to machine-readable form; retrospective conversion is most often undertaken in preparation for installation of a local automated (circulation/catalog) system or for a cooperative resource sharing project

Statewide Advisory Council on Libraries

Southeastern Automated Integrated Libraries

The process of choosing the books and other materials to be bought by a library

Southeastern Massachusetts Library System

A kind of catalog or inventory of items as they appear on the library shelf

The examination of the arrangement of materials on the shelves to assure the material is in assigned order

Purchasing books from a vendor in a pre-processed format, with plastic jackets, call numbers, bar codes, and cards already in place.

Special Libraries Association; a professional association of librarians who work in special libraries such as businesses, hospitals, law offices

The area in which a series of bookcases or sections of shelving are arranged in rows or ranges and used for the storage of the library's collections

State cherry sheet awards for strengthening and improving public libraries

A word or group of words indicating a subject under which all material dealing with the same theme is entered in a catalog, bibliography, or index, or is arranged in a file

All the activities related to obtaining, organizing, and processing library items and maintaining them with repairs and renovation

The exchange of information by electrical transmission over great distances (i.e., telephone lines); telecommunications technology connects terminals to computer systems

An electronic device for communicating with a computer (i.e., sending and receiving information to and from a computer); a terminal usually has a keyboard and a display screen and/or printer

A complete information processing system provided by a vendor, including hardware, software, installation, and training

A list of holdings for a given group of libraries of materials of a given type, in a certain field, or on a particular subject

A file of pamphlets, clippings, pictures, or other documents kept in a filing cabinet and arranged for ready reference, generally by subject; sometimes called pamphlet file or information file

The selection of library material from the collection to be discarded or transferred to storage because of its poor physical condition, outdated content, or limited popularity; weeding is an essential a part of collection maintenance

Western Massachusetts Regional Library System

One part of the Internet in which information is presented using hypertext markup language; the web is accessed using a web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer; web access is provided for a fee from an Internet service provider such as AOL

Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association