Glossary of Library and Information Science - O

O

• operators - symbols that represent operations. In computer science there are binary and unary operators depending on the number of elements or records an operator acts on. In database searching there are Boolean and Proximity operators. Boolean operators are a subclass of logical operators (Logical operators are binary operators that manipulate data at the bit level.). A Boolean operator manipulates the binary "true/false" value.

• online catalog or electronic catalog - a record of the holdings of an institution (e.g. library or museum) or group of institutions (a consortium), often searchable, that can be found on the Internet.

• open source- in production and development a philosophy or methodology promoting free redistribution and access to an end product's design and implementation details.