Glossary

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Glossary

Term	Description
Ajax	Asynchronous JavaScript and XML – a broad group of Web technologies that can be used to implement a Web application that communicates with a server in the background, without interfering with the current state of the page. It is used in SFX to run the auto-complete feature. Auto-complete involves the program predicting a word or phrase that the user wants to type (such as a search for a journal title).
API	Application Programming Interface – a source code-based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other as opposed to user interfaces that facilitate interaction between people and computers. Documentation on SFX APIs can be found in El Commons.
CJK	CJK is a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which is used in the field of software and communications internationalization. The number of characters required for complete coverage of these languages cannot fit in the 256-character code space of 8-bit character encodings. They require at least a 16-bit fixed width encoding or multi-byte variable-length encodings. Support for CJK languages requires language and country specific rules for handling the searching, sorting, and display of CJK characters.
COinS	ContextObjects in SPAN – a method to embed bibliographic metadata in the HTML code of Web pages. SFX uses the metadata to retrieve a journal article. For more information, see http://ocoins.info/.
CrossRef	CrossRef is the official Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Registration Agency of the International DOI Foundation. SFX can query the CrossRef reference database with citation metadata and DOI information. This capability allows for enhancement of metadata and improved linking capabilities for certain targets.
CTXO - ContextObject	An information construct that binds a description of a primary entity — the referenced resource — together with descriptions of entities that indicate the context. In SFX, the ContextObject is used to store the metadata sent to SFX by a source via an OpenURL and any additional data SFX retrieves from the SFX database or via an external lookup. SFX uses the ContextObject to find services in the SFX database.
DOI	Digital Object Identifier – a permanent identifier given to a Web file or other Internet document. Referring to an online document by its DOI provides more stable linking than simply referring to it by its URL, because if its URL changes, the publisher need only update the metadata for the DOI to link to the new URL.
HTML	HyperText Markup Language – the main markup language for Web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of Web pages.
ISBN	International Standard Book Number – a unique numeric commercial book identifier.
ISSN	International Standard Serial Number – a unique numeric identifier used to identify a print or electronic periodical publication.
KB or KnowledgeBase	The SFX KnowledgeBase is a database and a set of programs that contain knowledge about linking resources. It consists of a comprehensive collection of sources, services, targets, objects, and object portfolios that can be used by the SFX link resolver. This information can be used by an institution to define its digital collection. All information that is part of the original KnowledgeBase is called global. It is globally relevant and is updated by Ex Libris by means of KnowledgeBase updates (released weekly). When a new SFX instance is installed, the SFX KnowledgeBase associated with this instance needs to be customized or localized. All electronic resources that are part of the digital collection of an institution’s library need to be described or represented in the SFX database before SFX linking is possible. Localization is performed in three steps: Activating global targets, target services, and object portfolios that are part of the digital collection of an institution's library Adding local information to these global targets, target services, and object portfolios (local coverage, proxy, and local server information) Creating new local targets, target services, and object portfolios if they are not part of the global KnowledgeBase (optional)
LCCN	Library of Congress Control Number – a serially based system of numbering cataloging records in the Library of Congress in the United States. LCCNs are used by librarians to access the associated bibliographic record in the database of the Library of Congress and to obtain information on various book titles in other databases, especially for books that have been published in the United States.
MARC	MAchine-Readable Cataloging – a data format and set of related standards used by libraries to encode and share information about books and other material they collect.
OAI	Open Archives Initiative – an initiative to build a framework to enhance access to archives containing digital content in order to increase the availability of scholarly communication.
OCLC	Online Computer Library Center – a computer library service and research organization that provides bibliographic, abstract, and full-text information.
OCLC nr	Online Computer Library Center number – a unique number used by OCLC to identify objects. The OCLC Control Number is used to enable communication between WorldCat and local catalog systems and can be used as a search key in bibliographic information in non-OCLC resources (for example, Google Books).
ONIX	ONline Information eXchange – XML formats used for capturing metadata relating to books and publications and the licenses under which libraries and other institutions use digital resources.
OpenURL	OpenURL is a standardized format of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) intended to enable Internet users to more easily find a copy of a resource that they are allowed to access. Although OpenURL can be used with any kind of resource on the Internet, it is most heavily used by libraries to help connect patrons to subscription content. The OpenURL standard is designed to enable linking from information resources such as abstracting and indexing databases (sources) to library services (targets), such as academic journals, whether online, in print, or other formats. The linking is mediated by link resolvers or link-servers that parse the elements of an OpenURL and provide links to appropriate targets available through a library using an OpenURL knowledge base. The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has developed OpenURL and its data container (the ContextObject) as American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard Z39.88.
PUBMED / PMID	A free database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. A PMID (PubMed identifier or PubMed unique identifier) is a unique number assigned to each PubMed record.
XML	Extensible Markup Language – a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
Z39.50	A client–server protocol for searching and retrieving information from remote computer databases. Interlibrary catalogue searches for interlibrary loans are often implemented with Z39.50 queries. Z39.50 is widely used in library environments and is often incorporated into integrated library systems and personal bibliographic reference software. Interlibrary catalogue searches for interlibrary loans are often implemented with Z39.50 queries.
UTF-8	UCS Transformation Format — 8-bit is a multibyte character encoding for Unicode. UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode character set. It is a variable-width encoding, with each character represented by one to four bytes.