Unhelpful library terminology....and GO. - LSW

I read some of these and think, "but that's what they are -- is it entirely the library's fault if users don't learn what things are called?" Yes, I know we have a problem with using jargon in a public setting, but are you going to start calling dictionaries the "thingy with all the words and stuff"? - ǎňňǎ

Anna, I'd say "thats what they are, because we named them that way", and then say that we need to be more thoughtful about natural language use before we name anything else, as a profession. - Jenica

Anna, any information architect -- or anyone who is a classification expert -- could work with the community being served to come up with a list of suggested terms that actually make sense, and then select the best of those. Calling something a "thingy with all the words and stuff" doesn't make sense. And also: what Jenica just said. - cecily

anna, I agree, mostly. But "opac" and all variants, and "cute" local names for the catalogue, like "Melvyl", all need to die. it's the catalogue. Calling it anything else hides it not just from naive users, but from experienced ones. - DJF

DJF that reminds me - when my undergraduate school finally got an electronic catalog, the brand name for it was OLLI. The terminal screen showed a large cheshire cat (in ASCII) with the letters OLLI where its face should be. OLLI Cat. Get it? I remember that because it's a spectacularly bad example of how cutesy library names don't work in the real world. - cecily

Cecily, I run the damn things and have to live with that name. - D0r0th34

One thing for the older terms like "Reference" is that it's impossible for me to objectively know if that's confusing jargon. I learned those as a wee thing from my school and public librarians, so they just make sense to me. So I tend to find just the "newer" things too jargony, like DDS, OPAC, etc. Except "monograph," which just drives me crazy. :) - Rachel Walden

festschrift (though this one isn't OUR fault) - D0r0th34

One word that drives me crazy for no good reason is "consortia." - Steve is older than ever

I have some sympathy with Anna's position, but I also agree that local terms for catalogs, and acronyms of virtually all sorts, are pretty much meaningless to most users. But I also wonder how much of the acceptance/non-acceptance of library terminology is a generational thing. When I was learning to use libraries in elementary, middle, and high school, there was no online catalog. You HAD to be taught how to use a library; nobody could walk in off the street and use a card catalog with no training. (Never mind the Reader's Guide.) So it seems reasonable to me that SOME aspects of library use might not be 100% transparent to users, though of course I'd LIKE to live in an ideal world where that's not necessary. I wonder to what extent I stand on the edge of a generational gap? - Catherine Pellegrino

What we have with the branded OPAC is an empty brand. Before you can brand something, there has to be *something* in the brandee's mind to slap a brand *on*. Calling an empty space Melvyl doesn't fill it. :) As to Catherine's point, I think what we're standing on is a satisficing gap. It's ever so much easier to information-satisfice than it used to be. - D0r0th34

There's lots and lots of specialized terminology out there. Every sport has it, video games, card games, and board games have it, many novels develop their own terms... What matters, then, is a community's willingness to accept that the terminology is worth learning. (And the branded catalog thing is more complicated if you have a local catalog and also WorldCat, which is also a branded name.) - lris

I would add that while information-satisficing has become easier, the information landscape *inside the library* is more complex. Used to was, when you walked into the library the information that was available to you was basically the library's physical holdings (plus fillips like ILL that weren't used much). That is soooooooooo not the case any more, and it makes life as an info provider rather difficult. (What do we "collect"? What do we catalog? What do we "provide access to"?) - D0r0th34

I also object to all the database names. Everything should be in JSTOR. - Steve is older than ever

Yeah, that's huge Dorothea. - lris

Translate from unhelpful to better understandable here? http://ff.im/bxtyN - Aaron the Librarian

We all have examples for opaque terminology; I think most, if not all, of mine are listed above. How about we offer thoughts on translating into more transparent terms? - Aaron the Librarian

"Special collections." :P - Laura B homecomin'

"Stacks", "Bibliographic Instruction", "Library Instruction" - Sarah June

reference to mean something that the user can't take out, or items that don't circulate. or in my library LUO (library use only). - tara

Sarah June, would you please suggest alternatives for "library instruction" in the other thread (http://ff.im/bxtyN)? I'd love to have a better term to use with faculty. - Catherine Pellegrino

Let me think about this one Catherine. I'm struggling with it as well. - Sarah June

oooh! and citation management tool, and digital image collection. no idea what to call these in plain english. - tara

holdings - marthalib

This may be a local issue: "Lower Level" "Main Level" "Upper Level" (3 floor building, rooms 000 are downstairs, 100 is the floor everyone come in on, 200 is upsatirs) - also, nobody notices the stairs they pass on he way in and the eleveator is key-access only - Aaron the Librarian

Aaron: that floor-numbering scheme seems reasonable to me. We have: Lower level, 1st floor, 1st mezzanine, 2nd floor, 2nd mezzanine. When they make me Director (ha!) the first thing I'm going to do is renumber the floors to 1, 2, 3, and 4. - Catherine Pellegrino

We have "main", "ground" and "lower ground". We also have "stack 1" through "stack 6". "main and "stack 3" are the same floor. but G and LG do not line up with any stack level. Oh, and S6 is the top floor (obviously, floors count up), but the call numbers go from the top down: "A" is on Stack 6, "Z" is on Stack 1. - DJF

But it could be worse, the Chemistry building next door has basement, lower ground, ground, 1, 2, etc. (all of B, G, LG, and 1 have direct access to the outside; it's built on the side of a hill) - DJF

Sigh. I actually love the term festschrift. And what do you call a hold if you don't use the term "hold"? I am with you all on most of the rest, though - laura x

I used to correct people when they asked for the "card catalog." I finally realized that they could give a crap about the form of the tool, they just wanted something to help them find materials. - Rochelle Rochelle

portal. - Marie is organized.

book truck. And what everyone else said. ;-) - Connie Crosby

Portal is a great game! - DJF

Oooh. "Holdings" is a good one, Martha. We have a links on our web page to "Subjects of Holdings" and "Formats of Holdings." I'm doing away with those during our redesign. - Laura B homecomin'

Unique to my library: Sabio (this was the ORIGINAL catalog/database access deal in the 90s, which went away, but there are still signs in the building that indicate "Sabio Access"). Also, Aaron, Catherine and DJF - my FPOW had floors Lower, 2, 3, 3A, 4, 4A, 5, 5A, 6 and 6A - the main floors were all available from 2 of the elevators, but the A floors could only be reached with the 3rd elevator (or the stairs). Most circulating books were on the A floors, but not all circulating books were. - ÉllbeeÇee

"not on loan" for items not on loan. Personally I have no problems with the words, and have no alternative, but since moving to public libraries I get asked *waaaay* too often what it means. "Graphic Novel" is actually confusing I think. "Databases". Even "renew" confuses people - I find they more often say "extend" - again, maybe not libraryland's problem?? - Kathryn says love n peace

Kathryn, I'm not sure how to take "not on loan" - does that mean it's available for check out or that it doesn't circulate out of the building? :) - ÉllbeeÇee

Does this map top LUO (from way back above)? - Aaron the Librarian

databases - ♫Geek in the 410♫

one more: federated search. sounds like a very small country that was part of the USSR. - tara

On the "library instruction" thing: I prefer "library research instruction" or just "research instruction" (at least to sell it to faculty; when they hear "research," it gives it more credence for many of them, I suspect). - Dana Longley

Just about anything that comes out of librarian's mouth sounds like it's really hard to do. - ɥsıuɐʎɹ

I also agree on the "databases" term. I prefer "search tools" and am making a push here to get everyone on board to start using that terminology instead (but it's an uphill battle). - Dana Longley

Pretty much every acronym out there. If you don't know what the letters stand for, you can't get even an initial clue as to what the thing being named is. - Katy S

"Federated search", "Openurl resolver" , "proxy" , . I had the impression that the library world went through a period where convention wisdom was you had to "brand" your services, so you ended up with libraries giving individual cutey names to services that were essentially the same because they all bought it from the same ILS vendor. - aarontay

yeah, we don't start with "proxy". we start with "off-campus access". - DJF

We tried renaming "e-reference" to "e-encyclopedias & dictionaries" on our website, and nobody figured it out. I've yet to find a library website with a better label, and I've been looking for three years. Either patrons know what reference means, or they think it means creating citations. - Kaijsa Calkins

Kaijsa, what to call electronic resources is one of the greatest mysteries of the world. Personally, I think that we shouldn't call them by what they are, but what you can do with them, but creating a suitable noun/verb pairing for these items has been quite a challenge for yours truly. - cecily

Really, we all just need to form a working group on terms and standardise the heck out of this. Not only do we have all this crazy jargon, we also expect library users/patrons/clients/customers (your choice) to learn different ones in every library they use. That's just crazy. - Fiona Bradley

In case anyone hasn't seen Jon Kupersmith's site, Library Terms That Users Understand, here's the link: http://www.jkup.net/terms.html - Stephen Francoeur

@kaijsa Online Encyclopedias / Online Dictionaries? (though, really, why would one buy a general dictionary anymore? define:[term] usually gives on-topic results (as well as occasional innapropriate, yet humourous, results) - Aaron the Librarian

I'm going to just label everything on our site "CLICK HERE!!!" and "!#!#!#!# L@@K #!#!#!#!#!" - Steve is older than ever

Books n Shit' Shit you can touch. Shit on a screen. - Pete

"reference" and "circulation" are pretty common yet a brand new person walking into a library has no idea what those mean. - Miriella

Sometimes "Information Desk" can be confusing if the library has a specific idea of what type of information is provided there. Some info desks don't handle reference questions. Some do. Although I generally like that more all purpose way of describing a service desk. And some of us only have one service point anymore. - Sarah June

I have always always loved the idea of a single desk for everything - I can't stand sending someone here, there, upstairs, downstairs and everywhere to get the few things they need. - Miriella