Weinheimer Jim wrote:
>>
>> I don't know if "cataloger" ever had all that attractive of a
>> meaning in the past,
That may well be. Out of itself, is this sufficient to justify the
introduction of a new term?
OK, I understand, "catalog(ue)" has become unattractive, for
whatever reasons, so much so that a new term is essential for the
profession's survival.
What qualities, then, would we expect in our new name?
"Catalog", if we come to think of it, easily turns into
"catalogers" for the persons creating it and the verb "to catalog"
for their activity.
Contrarily, the "googler" and "to google" denote the person using the
device and the act of usage, respectively. There's no reference to
those who create it or the job they are doing. And that makes sense
because nobody using any web service reflects about the people
assembling it or the nature of their job. Web services, once
they exist, tend to be taken for granted like electricity coming
out of sockets in the wall: no-one cares how it gets there and who's
doing what to keep it flowing. Well, you pay for it, whereas with
Google, or catalogs, you'd be surprised if they carried a price tag...
Both, of course, require an enormous and steady cashflow for their
upkeep, the former from advertisers, the latter from the taxpayer.
But that gets us off-topic.
"Metalog" shares the word-family quality of "Catalog" and isn't
unreasonably far away from catalog as well. Any radically new term
might be more difficult to communicate. OTOH, when "Google" was first
introduced, no one cared about that name's opaqueness. That and its
freshness may well have been ingredients fermenting success. Would the
same recipe work for catalogs? Probably not - the OPAC didn't really
catch on in public parlance, but maybe because it sounds a bit dull.
"BooFi", the book finder, might have done better. But now, the "oo"
has become suspicious when used in a new name.
On the local level, many new names have been tried for opacs: Melvyl,
Hollis, VuFind, AlleyCat, OskiCat and many other ...cats (being only
half neologismic though). Has any one of those attained the status of a
household word in the community it serves?
For me, the "catalog" may as well survive because a rose, by any other
name ...
B.Eversberg
Received on Tue Dec 08 2009 - 07:29:09 EST