[Web4lib] How to label the OPAC (was: Role of the OPAC)

[Thomas, Susan Elaine]

That's okay.  Here is some more sarcasm....

Car Parts: Dashboard, glove-box or glove compartment, radio, steering
wheel, parking brake, odometer, gas pedal, brake, steering column,
ignition, heater, air conditioner, gas gauge, tires, headlights or head
lamps, hood, trunk (or bonnet or boot), wind shield or screen, wind
shield wipers, engine, lug nuts, front seat, back seat, seat belts,
locks, handles, muffler, oil filter, etc. 

Pen: cap, ink cartridge, tip

Telephone part that you talk into I believe is called a receiver.

How on earth can people be expected to have intelligent conversations if
they don't have a grasp of basic everyday vocabulary?  As an educator it
is one of my responsibilities to ensure that students know and
understand more terminology than when they started their academic
careers.  And as far as most current dictionaries go, catalog is not
obsolete.  While it might certainly be more current to refer to it as
the library's database it does not change the fact that it is still a
catalog of library holdings.

I did note that I don't necessarily think it is important that we teach
patrons every single detail of an online catalog such as the marc
records or what specific fields mean.  There are enough books on that
topic for the truly curious to learn on their own.  But I guess they
would have to use the catalog to find them or ask a really good
librarian who will explain to the patron as he or she searches that we
are checking the catalog to see what the library has on that topic. :)

Susan Thomas
suethoma at iusb.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Drew, Bill [mailto:drewwe at MORRISVILLE.EDU] 
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 9:54 AM
To: Thomas, Susan Elaine; web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] How to label the OPAC (was: Role of the OPAC)

Please excuse the following bit of sarcasm. Can you tell me the name of
the parts in your car?  What are the parts of your ballpoint pen? Better
yet, what is the technical term for the part of your telephone called
that you talk into? The term "catalog" has been obsolete for at least a
decade.

Bill Drew
drewwe at morrisville.edu

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Thomas, 
> Susan Elaine
(was: Role of the OPAC)
> 
> I agree that it is important to look at the terminology we 
> use with our
> patrons and "Find books and more" certainly makes much more immediate
> sense than the library catalog.  But at the same time I 
> wonder if we are
> not doing a disservice to our users in not educating them 
> about the term
> catalog and what it means.