Re: Ceci n'est pas une catalogue

Seems like the stickiest new terms, some of them quite good, are "brand"
names.

I like "LibraryThing", "WorldCat", and even "iTunes", as they seem
self-descriptive and catchy, but they are still proper names.

If such services become overwhelmingly popular, maybe the names of one or
two will become established in the way of xerox or kleenex. ("Did you look
in the amazon?")

Or, maybe one such term is already established ("Did you look on the web?")?





Wade Guidry
Systems Manager, CRSN
ofc / cell: 503.801.2073
fax: 503.815.8194
wade_at_beachbooks.org
http://www.beachbooks.org



----- Original Message -----
From: "William Denton" <wtd_at_POBOX.COM>
To: <NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 8:12 PM
Subject: [NGC4LIB] Ceci n'est pas une catalogue


> Will the next generation catalogue be called a catalogue?  What do you
> call your conception of what should replace your OPAC?
>
> I've mentioned before on this list how I've been inspired by Wendy Newman,
> who first told me about the One Big Library, and Dan Chudnov, himself a
> believer in the One Big Library, who decided his mission in life was to
> help people build their own libraries.
>
> I phrase it like this:  I want to help people build, manage, and share
> their personal branch of the One Big Library.
>
> My short form for this is "catalogue."  But where I work, when I talk
> about a catalogue, people take it as the OPAC.  (And we don't have a very
> good one.)  The OPAC is separate from the online journals and electronic
> resources, so there's some confusion.  In my head, it's all the same big
> crazy goddamn thing, but the word means something different to other
> folks.
>
> I've been thinking that "resource discovery tool" might work, but that's
> kind of dull.  "NGC" sounds like something non-governmental.  Do you have
> a word for it?  Maybe "platform" could be worked in somewhere?
>
> Bill
> --
>