[WEB4LIB] Re: Library lingo

[Genny Engel]

True, but the fact that they're able to adjust their terms to what they
think you want to hear shows you the range of their flexibility.  This
range only extends so far.

My favorite example right now on our site is "Library catalog."  For
one thing, most websites use "catalog" to mean an online shop or a place
to order a printed catalog of things for sale.  So this confuses some
users right away.  For another thing, although our patrons seem pretty
flexible about whether "hold" or "request" or "reserve" is used to mean
placing a hold request on an item, there's an unbridgeable gap for most
of them between the concept of "reserve a book" functionality and the
phrase "library catalog."  Even if they know the catalog is the list of
our holdings, they don't necessarily expect that to have anything to do
with the book requesting feature.

So the issue goes beyond terminology to how we cluster functionality
within our systems.  We've taken the step of separating the "My account"
link from the "Library catalog" link, so at least people wanting to
check their existing holds, renew books, etc. have an easier time of it.
 But there's still no separate link for "Reserve a book".  In fact it'd
be pretty difficult to provide one that made any sense given the way our
ILS and OPAC work, but still, the lack of such a link throws some
users.



Genny Engel
Internet Librarian
Sonoma County Library
gengel at sonoma.lib.ca.us
707 545-0831 x581

>>> "K.G. Schneider" <kgs at bluehighways.com> 08/12/04 10:29AM >>>
> What I do is listen to what the users ask for when they come to the
> reference desk, and then use those terms prominently in the web
page.
> 
> Nothing beats staying in touch with your audience.

That's a great point, though search logs can also be very helpful, and
so
can usability tests. One problem with going strictly by the language
of
their users is they may be using what they think is your lingo in order
to
communicate.