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Library Lingo

This page lists common terms, acronyms, and phrases used by libraries and librarians.

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Keyword Searching

Uses natural language (you choose the words to use) and is a great place to start when you don’t know the subject, but you have to guess which words the author used in the document and the database will only find the documents that used the words that you searched. See Subject Searching.

Kindle

The Amazon Kindle is a series of e-book readers designed and marketed by Amazon.com. Amazon Kindle devices enable library users to download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking.