Glossary

Academies: state schools funded directly by the government and run by an academy trust rather than the local authority.

Academy Trust: not-for-profit company who employ the staff and trustees responsible for the performance of schools within the trust.

Accession number: a unique number given to each library resource recorded in the catalogue. This number is often then identified using a barcode.

Advocacy: promoting the worth of an area, such as school librarianship, in general terms.

Alphabetical order: a way of sorting information into A–Z order. Fiction books, for example, can be organised in alphabetical order by the author's last name.

Annual report: yearly report detailing an overview of library activities and finances.

Audio-visual (AV) stock: items you can listen to (audio) or watch (visual).

Barcode: a design consisting of numbers and parallel lines that can be read by machines. Books often have two barcodes: one that identifies the ISBN and book details; the other that identifies the unique accession number.

Benchmarking: to evaluate something by comparison with a standard.

Bibliographic data: data that can be used to identify a book or resource, such as title, author, date of publication, etc.

Book jacket: a strong plastic or sticky-back plastic cover that protects a book. See: Dust jacket.

Book levelling: sorting books into levels according to students’ reading abilities. Books are sorted by different coloured labels or a numbering system. Commonly used in primary schools and reading schemes.

Borrow: to take away books or other stock, with the librarian's permission, for a set period of time.

Borrowing system: a method that allows people to take books out of the library for a set period of time. A computerised record of who has borrowed which book helps the librarian to find the book if it is not returned by the specified date.

Branding: the promotion of a product or organisation via advertising and a distinctive design.

Cataloguing: adding details about books and resources to the library catalogue, for example, the author, title, publisher and classification number.

Certification: CILIP Certification is aimed at those who are at the beginning of their professional career or who want to gain some recognition for their knowledge and skills.