Glossary of acronyms and abbreviations
A list of current and in some cases now historic acronyms and abbreviations.
| Acronym | Expansion/Explanation |
|---|---|
| AACR2 | Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition [often simply just AACR] |
| AGM | Annual General Meeting |
| AHRB | Arts and Humanities Research Board |
| AHDS | Arts and Humanities Data Service |
| ALA | American Library Association |
| ARSC | Association for Recorded Sound Collections (principally US-based) |
| ASW | Annual Study Weekend |
| BBC | British Broadcasting Corporation |
| BL | British Library |
| BLCMP | Birmingham Libraries Co-operative Mechanisation Project |
| BLCPP | British Library Co-operation & Partnership Programme |
| BLDSC | British Library Document Supply Centre |
| BMIC | British Music Information Centre |
| BnF | Bibliothèque national de France |
| BPI | Trade body for the UK record industry |
| CC:DA | Committee on Cataloging: Description & Access — part of ALA |
| CERL | Consortium of European Research Libraries |
| CHOMBEC | Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth |
| CIDOC | Committee on Documentation of the International Council of Museums |
| CILIP | Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals |
| CMC | Contemporary Music Centre [Dublin] |
| COLICO | Committee on Library Cooperation in Ireland |
| CONARLS | Circle of Officers of National and Regional Library Systems |
| CURL | Consortium of University Research Libraries |
| DC | Dublin Core (metadata standard) |
| DCMI | Dublin Core Metadata Initiative |
| DCMS | Department for Culture, Media and Sport |
| DCU | Dublin City University |
| DENI | Department of Education for Northern Ireland |
| DIT | Dublin Institute of Technology [includes Conservatory of Music and Drama] |
| DSC | see BLDSC |
| DTD | Document Type Definition (XML definitions) |
| EAD | Encoded Archival Description |
| EAN | European Article Number (i.e. the barcode on all European products) see also UPC |
| FAIR | Focus on Access to Institutional Resources |
| FRAD | Functional Requirements for Authority Data superseding FRAR |
| FRANAR | Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records |
| FRAR | Functional Requirements for Authority Records possibly superseded by FRAD |
| FRBR | Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records |
| FRBRoo | Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (object oriented) — an attempt to harmonize FRBR with the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model |
| FRSAD | Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data equivalent to FRSAR |
| FRSAR | Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records equivalent to FRSAD |
| GLASS | Greater London Audio Specialisation Scheme — assists interlending of sound recordings |
| GMD | General Material Designation — AACR2 term to be superseded |
| HEA | Higher Education Authority [main source of higher education funds in Irish Republic] |
| HEFCE | Higher Education Funding Council for England (pronounced as Hef-see) |
| HEFCW | Higher Education Funding Council for Wales |
| HLF | Heritage Lottery Fund |
| HTML | Hypertext Markup Language — the basis of the World Wide Web |
| IAMIC | International Association of Music Information Centres |
| IAML | International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres |
| IASA | International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives |
| IFLA | International Federation of Library Associations |
| IFPI | International Federation of the Phonographic Industry |
| IIS | Institute of Information Scientists — merged with LA to form CILIP |
| IMS | International Musicological Society |
| INSPIRE | Information Sharing Partners in Resources for Education |
| ISBD | International Standard Bibliographic Description |
| ISMN | International Standard Music Number |
| ISRC | International Standard Recording Code |
| ISWC | International Standard Work Code |
| ITMA | Irish Traditional Music Archive |
| JISC | Joint Information Systems Committee |
| JSC | Joint Steering Committee (for AACR) |
| LA | Library Association — merged with IIS to form CILIP |
| LABL | Library Association/British Library committee to discussing cataloguing rules — now superseded |
| LC or LoC | Library of Congress |
| LCSH | Library of Congress Subject Headings |
| LIP | Library and Information Plan |
| LLiL | Libraries and Learners in London |
| LLGC | Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = National Library of Wales |
| MARBI | Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information committee — of ALA |
| MARC | MAchine-Readable Cataloguing (also UKMARC, USMARC, MARC21, UNIMARC etc.) |
| MARCXML | MARC coding recast as XML |
| MCPS/PRS | Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society/Performing Rights Society Alliance |
| METS | Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard |
| MILDRED | Music in Libraries: Directory and Resource Discovery |
| MLA | Museums, Libraries and Archives Council |
| MLA | Music Library Association (US body) |
| MLO | Music Libraries Online |
| MLT | Music Libraries Trust |
| MODS | Metadata Object Description Schema |
| MOLA | Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association |
| MPEG | Moving Picture Experts Group (content and metadata standards as in e.g. MPEG 7) |
| NAMHE | National Association of Musicians in Higher Education |
| NFIP | National Forum for Information Planning |
| NISC | National Information Services Corporation |
| NLI | National Library of Ireland |
| NLS | National Library of Scotland |
| NLW | Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = National Library of Wales |
| NOF | New Opportunities Fund |
| NSA | defunct acronym for: British Library Sound Archive |
| NUI | National University of Ireland [as in NUI Maynooth, NUI Galway, etc.] |
| ONIX | Online Information Exchange (an international standard for exchange of publishers’ information) |
| OOD | Object-oriented design also OOP Object-oriented programming |
| OUP | Oxford University Press |
| OWL | Web Ontology Language |
| PADS | defunct acronym for: AHDS Performing Arts |
| PRS | see MCPS/PRS Alliance |
| PULMAN | Public Libraries Mobilising Advanced Networks |
| QUB | Queen’s University Belfast |
| RAK | Regeln für die alphabetische Katalogisierung — German cataloguing code |
| RAM | Royal Academy of Music |
| RASCAL | Research and Special Collections Available Locally [resource database originally developed in Northern Ireland, now being extended throughout Ireland] |
| RCM | Royal College of Music |
| RDA | Resource Description and Access (successor to AACR2) |
| RDF | Resource Description Framework — a W3C metadata specification |
| RDN | Resource Discovery Network |
| RIAM | Royal Irish Academy of Music |
| RIdIM | Répertoire International d’Iconographie Musicale |
| RILM | Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale |
| RIPM | Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale |
| RISC | Répertoire International des Spectacles et Concerts |
| RISM | Répertoire International des Sources Musicales |
| RNCM | Royal Northern College of Music |
| RSAMD | Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama |
| RSLG | Research Support Libraries Group |
| RSLP | Research Support Libraries Programme |
| RSS | Really Simple Syndication among other interpretations. A means for distribution of web content by means of XML feeds to certain web browsers or RSS readers/RSS aggregators. |
| RTE | Radio Telefís Éireann [Irish national broadcaster) |
| SGML | Standard Generalized Markup Language — the superset that includes HTML, XHTML, XML … |
| SHEFC | Scottish Higher Education Funding Council |
| SIBMAS | Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle = International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts |
| SMD | Specific Material Designation — AACR2 term to be superseded |
| SQL | Structured Query Language — the most widespread database access method |
| SMI | Society for Musicology in Ireland |
| SRU | Search/Retrieve via URL — a standard search protocol for Internet search queries |
| SRW | Search/Retrieve Web service — a web service for search and retrieval |
| SWRLS | South Western Regional Library System |
| TCD | Trinity College Dublin |
| TCM | Trinity College of Music [London] later Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance |
| TIG | Theatre Information Group |
| UCC | University College Cork |
| UCD | University College Dublin |
| UL | University of Limerick |
| UPC | Universal Product Code (i.e. the barcode on all North-American products) see also EAN |
| VIAF | Virtual International Authority File |
| VRA | Visual Resources Association |
| W3C | World Wide Web Consortium |
| WILIP | Wider Information and Library Issues Project |
| WiLL | What’s in London Libraries |
| WOL | see OWL |
| WSIS | World Summit on the Information Society |
| XHTML | A strict version of HTML — conforming to XML syntax rules |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language |
| Z39.50 | Client–server search and retrieval protocol (also known as ISO 23950 – see what they did there?) |