| 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Functional Requirements for Authority Records possibly superseded by FRAD |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 — in progress) |
| RDF |
Resource Description Framework — a W3C metadat 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] |
| 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) |
