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

[Mitchell, Michael]

Where would we be if our academic disciplines were so worried about
introducing students to new vocabulary or specialized meanings of old
vocabulary? If college students don't know what a catalog is in a
library it is time they learned. It's not like we're asking them to
learn the meaning of a word like polyhydroxyalkanoates. I'm not going to
stop calling our library a library either just because some students
don't know what all we have to offer.
	Having said that, I think something like "Library Catalog - Find
books and more" makes sense.

Michael Mitchell
Technical Services Librarian
Brazosport College
Lake Jackson, TX
michael.mitchell at brazosport.edu 

---------------------
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org]On
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] How to label the OPAC (was: Role of the OPAC)
> > primary assumption going in. And how many potential users do we
> > lose--reasonably intelligent people who are making every effort to
apply
> > what they know to our websites--because they look, they apply
knowledge,
> > then they conclude we don't offer what we need? They aren't "dumb,"
and
> it's
> > not dumbing anything down to design the system around their task
> knowledge.