[WEB4LIB] Library lingo

[K.G. Schneider]

> anybody willing to share how they reach out to the people that probably
> never come to the library, yet use the web site quite frequently?

Yes indeed! We never see our users, the slippery digital devils, since we
are all Web, so we work hard to ix-nay the dreaded jargon in the first
place. The word "index" is a tough one because many of our resources are
librarian-created, and therefore use the word index. In fact the darn word
is welded into our rather long and decidedly un-mnemonic name. Then again,
"searchable, browsable portal and announcement service for high-quality Web
sites" wouldn't be any shorter and introduces the dreaded p-word. 

Do you need to call it an OPAC? 

We maintain a list of Terms to Avoid. I was confident that library jargon
was on our list of Terms To Avoid. I guess we're just good, but we should
add this list any way--so noted on my to-do list. See:

http://lii.org/search/file/style#stalestuff

We all fall victim to in-language, but you don't have to explain jargon if
you don't use it in the first place. 

Karen G. Schneider
Director, Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://lii.org kgs at lii.org