Maharashtra HSC Library & Information Science key terms

Five principles stated by S. R. Ranganathan: books are for use, every reader their book, every book its reader, save the time of the reader, and the library is a growing organism.

Indian mathematician and librarian (1892-1972) who founded the Madras Library Association, drafted India's first library legislation, and created Colon Classification and the five laws of library science.

The organised effort from the late nineteenth century onward to establish public libraries across India, driven by social reform, nationalist sentiment, and associations such as the Indian Library Association founded in 1933.

A state law that empowers a government to establish, fund, and govern public library services within its territory, typically through a library authority and a dedicated library cess or tax.

State legislation providing for a graded public library system in Maharashtra, funded partly by a library cess on certain local taxes, and administered through a State Library Council and district library authorities.

A surcharge levied on specified local taxes, such as property or entertainment tax, and earmarked by law for financing public library services rather than general government revenue.

The statutory body named in library legislation that is responsible for establishing and maintaining library services, setting policy, and spending library funds within a defined area.

A library open to the whole community, usually funded from public money, lending material free of charge and offering reading, reference, and community information services to all ages.

A library attached to a school, college, or university that supports teaching, learning, and research for its parent institution's students and staff, typically through course-related collections and reference help.

A library serving a narrow clientele and subject focus, such as a research institute, corporation, hospital, or government department, emphasising current, technical, and unpublished information over general reading material.

A formal cooperative arrangement among libraries that jointly license electronic resources and share infrastructure, negotiating as a group to obtain lower prices and wider access than members could achieve alone.

A linked group of libraries that share catalogues, resources, or services through agreed standards and communication links, enabling users of one member library to discover or borrow material held by others.

A service through which one library borrows books or obtains copies of articles from another library on behalf of its own user, extending access beyond the local collection.

The supply of a requested document, or a copy of it, to a user either from the library's own stock or from an external supplier, often in electronic form and usually for a fee.

A faceted scheme devised by S. R. Ranganathan that builds class numbers from separate personality, matter, energy, space, and time facets, joined by colons and other connecting symbols.

A widely used enumerative scheme, first published in 1876, that divides all knowledge into ten main classes numbered 000 to 900 and builds notation by decimal subdivision.

The process of arranging documents in a helpful order by subject, using a published scheme so that related items sit together and each item receives a stable place on the shelf.

A scheme that analyses a subject into separate fundamental categories and combines notations for each facet, rather than listing ready-made subjects; it allows new subjects to be expressed without revising the schedule.

The label on a document giving its shelf location, normally made up of a class number for the subject, a book or author number, and sometimes a year or volume marker.

An organised record of the documents held by a library, listing each item with details such as author, title, and location so that users can find material by known details or by subject.

The work of describing documents and assigning access points such as author, title, and subject, following agreed codes so that entries are consistent and can be shared between libraries.

Online Public Access Catalogue: the computer interface through which library users search the catalogue by author, title, keyword, or subject and see whether an item is available.

A combined catalogue recording the holdings of several libraries, used to locate which member library owns a particular item and to support cooperative acquisition and interlibrary lending.

Personal help given by library staff in answering users' information queries, ranging from quick factual answers and guidance in using sources to a full search on the user's behalf.

A quick-answer service using fast sources such as dictionaries, directories, and almanacs to settle short factual queries, as distinct from longer research assistance requiring an extended literature search.

A work compiled to be consulted for specific pieces of information rather than read through, such as an encyclopaedia, dictionary, directory, yearbook, or statistical handbook.

A service that keeps users informed of newly published or newly received material in their field, typically through contents lists, bulletins, or selective dissemination of information.

A personalised alerting service in which a user's stated interests are matched against incoming documents and only the matching items are notified, often through automated profiles.

The use of computers and software to carry out routine library operations such as acquisition, cataloguing, circulation, and serials control, replacing manual files and registers.

An integrated application with modules for acquisition, cataloguing, circulation, serials, and reporting that share one database, so a record entered once serves all library functions.

A free, open-source integrated library system used by libraries of all sizes, offering cataloguing, circulation, acquisitions, and a web-based public catalogue without licence fees.

A machine-readable pattern of lines printed on a label and attached to a document or borrower card, scanned at the circulation desk to identify items and speed up issue and return.

Radio Frequency Identification: a technology using tags and radio waves to identify library items, enabling rapid stocktaking and self-issue without line-of-sight scanning.

A collection of digital documents, with the tools to organise, search, and deliver them over a network, so users reach material regardless of where the physical copies are held.

A publishing model in which scholarly works are made freely available online, usually through journals or repositories, with costs met by authors, institutions, or funders rather than subscribers.

An online archive set up by a university or research body to collect, preserve, and make openly accessible the intellectual output of its own staff and students.

Any information product delivered electronically, such as an e-journal, e-book, database, or streaming collection, usually licensed for a defined group of users under access terms.

The planned process of building a library's holdings through selection, acquisition, weeding, and evaluation, guided by a written policy that reflects the needs of the community served.

A written statement setting out what a library will collect, how selection decisions are made, who is responsible, and how gifts, complaints, and deselection are handled.

The systematic removal of stock that is outdated, damaged, little used, or no longer relevant, so shelves stay accurate and attractive and space is freed for current material.

A financial plan estimating income and expenditure for a library over a set period, allocating funds among staff, collections, services, and equipment, and providing a basis for control and accountability.

The approved structure of posts in a library, showing grades, numbers, and reporting relationships, used for recruitment, workload distribution, and budget planning.

A written statement of the duties, responsibilities, reporting lines, and required qualifications of a particular post, used in recruitment, induction, and performance review.

The periodic, structured assessment of an employee's work against agreed standards, intended to identify training needs, support promotion decisions, and improve service quality.

The ability to recognise an information need, locate and evaluate relevant sources critically, and use the information ethically and effectively to answer that need.

Planned instruction that helps library users make effective use of collections, catalogues, and services, ranging from orientation tours and leaflets to formal courses in information skills.

The gaps in a person's knowledge that prompt a search for information, shaped by work role, task, and context, and used by librarians to design relevant collections and services.

Systematic investigation of who uses a library, what they need, and how satisfied they are, carried out through surveys, interviews, or usage data to guide service improvement.

Presenting another person's words, ideas, or data as one's own without proper acknowledgement, a breach of academic honesty that libraries address through citation guidance and integrity instruction.

The legal right of an author or creator to control copying, publication, and adaptation of a work for a limited term, subject to exceptions such as fair dealing for research and private study.

The principle that library users should have unrestricted access to ideas and information, and that librarians resist censorship and avoid removing material merely because it offends someone.

The accepted standards of conduct for library workers, covering confidentiality of user records, impartial service, avoidance of conflicts of interest, respect for copyright, and resistance to censorship.

A national professional body founded in 1933 that promotes library development in India, publishes a journal, and organises conferences and training for library personnel.