| « Cataloging / Classification Comm.
| A Guide to Library Technical Terms | Joe Thomas, Notre Dame Joseph.W.Thomas.2@nd.edu |
| What it sounds like: | What it is: | |
| Retrospective conversion | A post-mortem religious experience | Changing existing card catalog records to online records |
| Z39.50 (Z39 dot 50) | An annoying robotic side-kick in a cheesy science fiction movie | A protocol that allows a search in one library’s catalog to be carried out in other catalogs |
| Reference interview | Touch-and-go conversation between a potential employer and your current boss | Touch-and-go conversation between a reference librarian and a patron |
| OPAC | Organization of Petroleum Absorbing Countries | Online Public Access Catalog |
| Circulation override | Access Services staff heading out on horseback to track down delinquencies | Allowing items which usually don’t circulate to do so |
| Electronic dissemination | Process by which Microsoft intends to take over the universe | Publishing without paper and distributing via computers |
| CONSER | Nefarious government body | An international cooperative serials cataloging program |
| Serial | Misspelled breakfast food | A publication which is intended to keep on publishing |
| Bibliographic entity | A ghost haunting the library | Anything that can be described in a cataloging record (including a ghost haunting the library) |
| Monograph | A scholarly presentation of profoundly important ideas representing an original direction within a particular discipline, or across several discipline | A book |
| « Cataloging / Classification Comm.