[Web4lib] Friendly language

[Richard Wiggins]

True story, from a librarian I once knew:

Undergrad walks up to the reference desk.  Librarian looks up the text
sought, and points out the colored tape on the floor, tells her to follow
the blue line to the stacks to find the book.

Student declares "But the line ends here!"

Of course, in fact, the line begins there.  No arrows to make that clear to
the clueless.

Librarian considers giving thoughts on existentialism, but demurs.

/rich

On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Lise Brin <brinmobile at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just to highlight how students' interpretations of library terms are often
> at odds with what we intended, I am regularly shocked by how many students
> get confused between the "Reserves Desk" and the "Reference Desk."
>
> My guess is neither term is intuitive to them, so they don't distinguish
> between the two.
>
>
> Lise Brin
> Emerging Services Librarian
> St. Francis Xavier University
> Antigonish, Nova Scotia
> lbrin at stfx.ca
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 3:11 PM, Richard Wiggins
> <richard.wiggins at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>  > "Stuff Your Prof Is Making You Read"?   :-)  /rich
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 6:32 AM, Marc Davis <marc.davis at drake.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > > Probably one place to start is with actual student language.
> > >
> > > For example: "course."  I don't hear students talk about "skipping
> > course"
> > > but they do say "skipping class" . . . frequently.  On midwestern
> > campuses,
> > > anyway, "class" is a much more common term that "courses."
> > >
> > > When looking for reserves they come to the desk telling us "I need the
> > > readings for my biology class." Other frequently used terms include
> > > "articles, books, assignments"  or some combination like "assigned
> > reading."
> > >  I don't recall ever being asked for "materials."
> > >
> > > So, I'd keep track for a while at the Reserves desk of what students
> are
> > > actually saying.  At one library we ended up with "Assigned Class
> > Readings."
> > >
> > > FWIW.
> > >
> > > Marc Davis
> > > Systems Associate
> > > Cowles Library, Drake University
> > > 2507 University Avenue
> > > Des Moines, IA 50311  USA
> > > 515-271-1934
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Coral Sheldon-Hess" <coral.hess at gmail.com>
> > > To: "web4lib" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
> > > Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:48:57 PM
> > > Subject: [Web4lib] Friendly language
> > >
> > > Hello!
> > >
> > > My library (or, well, our Web Team) has started talking about using
> > > "friendlier" terms on our website. Most immediately, we'd like to find
> > > a more intuitive name for "Course Reserves." None of our students seem
> > > to know what that term means, so, of course, it gets very little use.
> > > I know a number of libraries have looked into de-jargonizing (how's
> > > that for a word) their websites, lately, though I don't know whether
> > > they've had good results or not. I'd love to hear from any librarians
> > > working on that kind of project!
> > >
> > > To the crowd at large, though, do you have any thoughts on what else
> > > to call "Course Reserves"? The best we've got, now, is "Course
> > > Materials." Do you have--or have you seen--any really good examples of
> > > "friendly" academic library website language?
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance!
> > >
> > > --
> > > Coral Sheldon-Hess
> > > Web Services Librarian
> > > UAA/APU Consortium Library
> > >
> > > "... the library is not a place but a service." --Allen B. Veaner
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Web4lib mailing list
> > > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Web4lib mailing list
> > > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Web4lib mailing list
> > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>
>