data-whats-its?
There was an interesting post on the Library Garden blog earlier this month relaying a twitter conversation about what terminology libraries could (or should) use to describe their electronic information resources, rather than the word ‘databases’.
I agree – we need a new word. Why? I’m just not sure that the word ‘database’ means anything much to anyone but library peops (and even for we library types, I think it’s a word we’ve gotten stuck with, for want of something better, rather than one that meaningfully describes what these resources are or do).
So what exactly do we call them?
One participant in the twitter conversation relayed in the Library Garden post suggests asking the user. Surely this is the answer! The principles of user-centred design could be employed here to help us come up with a label that means something to the people it should mean something to: the patrons. Let’s get them to explore the resources, describe their usefulness in their own words, and come up with some appropriate labels.
Down with jargon!
