Note: This is a list of the more common abbreviations and acronyms used in the text It is not an exhaustive list.
| AAAF | Anglo-American Authority File |
| AACR | Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules |
| ABN | Australian Bibliographic Network |
| ALA | American library Association |
| ANSI | American National Standards Institute |
| ASCII | American Standard Code for Information Interchange |
| ASSIA | Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts |
| BC | (Bliss) Bibliographic Classification |
| BC2 | (Bliss) Bibliographic Classification, 2nd edn |
| BIDS | Bath Information and Data Services |
| BL | British library |
| BLAISE | British library Automated Information Service |
| BLCMP | Birmingham libraries Co-operative Mechanization Project |
| BNB | British National Bibliography |
| BT | broader term |
| BT | (G) broader term (generic) |
| BT | (P) broader term (partitive) |
| BTI | British Technology Index |
| CC | Colon Classification |
| CCF | Common Communications Format |
| CD | compact disc |
| CD-ROM | compact disc read-only memory |
| CIP | Cataloguing in Publication |
| CONSER | Conversion of Serials project |
| DBM | Sdatabase management system |
| DDC | Dewey Decimal Classification |
| DOS | disc operating system |
| DTD | document type definition |
| DVD | digital versatile disc |
| DVI | digital video interactive |
| EARL | Electronic Access to Resources in Libraries |
| EDD | Electronic data delivery |
| EIS | executive information systems |
| ERIC | Educational Resources Information Center |
| FID | Fédération Internationale d’Information et de Documentation |
| FTP | file transfer protocol |
| GUI | graphical user interface |
| HTML | Hypertext Markup Language |
| HTTP | hypertext transfer protocol |
| IFLA | International Federation of library Association |
| IIB | Institut International de la Bibliographie |
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| ISBD | International Standard Bibliographic Description |
| ISBN | International Standard Book Number |
| ISDS | International Serials Data System |
| ISO | International Standards Organization |
| ISSN | International Standard Serial Number |
| IT | information technology |
| KWIC | keyword in context (index) |
| KWOC | keyword out of context (index) |
| LAN | local area network |
| LASER | London and South East Region |
| LC | Library of Congress |
| LCC | Library of Congress Classification |
| LCSH | Library of Congress Subject Headings |
| LMS | library management system |
| MARC | Machine-Readable Cataloguing |
| MeSH | Medical Subject Headings |
| MM-DBMS | multimedia database management system |
| NCSA | National Center for Supercomputer Applications |
| NSDC | National Serials Data Centre |
| NT | narrower term |
| NT(G) | narrower term (generic) |
| NT(P) | narrower term (partitive) |
| OCLC | Online Computer Library Center (originally Ohio College Online Computer Library Center) |
| OPAC | online public access catalogue |
| OSI | Open systems interconnection |
| PC | personal computer |
portable document format |
|
| PIF | Editor Program information files editor |
| PRECIS | Preserved Context Index System |
| RLG | Research Libraries Group |
| RT | related term |
| SDI | Selective Dissemination of Information |
| SGM | Standard Generalized Markup Language |
| SISP | Strategic Information Systems Planningsue |
| SLIC | Selective listing in Combination |
| SN | scope note |
| TCP/IP | transmission control protocol/Internet protocol |
| TT | top term |
| UDC | Universal Decimal Classification |
| UF | used for |
| UKMARC | United Kingdom MARC (format) |
| UNESCO | United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator |
| URN | Uniform Resource Number |
| USMARC | United States MARC (format) |
| VCR | video cassette recorder |
| WAN | wide area network |
| Web | World Wide Web |
| WWW | World Wide Webxix |