The library blogs I read are all useful to me in a myriad of
ways, whether it’s informative about the current state of librarianship or just
to provide some humor to keep from getting bogged down. Regardless of purpose,
however, I’ve noticed that there is a disparate mixture of spelling out
acronyms vs. letting acronyms stand on their own. Don’t get me wrong, I’m OK with acronyms on
principle. I did my undergrad at a university that had an acronym for absolutely everything; if something had
more than one word, it was abbreviated. The problem was, particularly as an
incoming freshman, I was wading through an alphabet soup of nonsense-words with
no context. It only added to the natural jitters that came with starting at a
new school in a completely new environment. It’s funny how life parallels itself sometimes. Now that I’m entering
another new environment and experiencing online education for the first time
with my MLIS, I’m feeling a bit of the same freshman jitters that accompany the
excitement of starting a new chapter in life. And I’m again in the position to
become familiar with a horde of new acronyms.
Now, if I didn’t have the wherewithal to use my resources to
find out what the acronym stands for, I have no business trying to be a
librarian. For the most part, Google is at least a quick fix. Plus the AmericanLibrary Association (ALA) has a great glossary of acronyms that
I’ve found useful as well. But when I come across an acronym I’m unfamiliar
with, those old jitters creep up and incite a feeling that is in stark contrast
with everything else I’ve encountered in my steps toward a career change.
Everyone I’ve spoken to about getting into Library Science
has been nothing but encouraging and welcoming to me, which is why it’s so
surprising when I come across an acronym without much context. I realize that
there is a certain level in any career where acronyms just come naturally (10
years later, I still use the acronyms of my alma
mater) but for those of us entering the field, it can give an air of
exclusivity. In a field that is adapting to changing times, getting broader in
scope and is trying to become more user-friendly, it’s always helpful to have an acronym spelled out on its first use just
to get everyone on the same page. After that, feel free to abbreviate away for
the rest of the post. (Or, if you’d prefer to save word space, Gava Libraria
has used an elegant solution.) This is particularly useful when
(as I’ve found on Google) some acronyms can have more than one meaning. While context
usually eliminates the outlandish possibilities, a newbie can harbor a fair
amount of lingering doubt as to whether he/she is using a term properly.
So I offer this as a plea to all the librarian bloggers to
be your encouraging, welcoming and educating selves and help out the newbies.
Please explain your acronyms. It helps clarify any misunderstandings plus
offers those of us unfamiliar with your terms another way into your awesome
field. Once we learn the lingo, we can only be more helpful to you! Plus, for
any non-librarians who may read blogs or articles because they are trying to
understand just what the library is good for nowadays (for funding purposes,
perhaps?), it’s helpful to wipe away some of the opaqueness that can shroud the
profession in the eyes of the general public. Spelling out acronyms is a simple
yet profound way of letting people in and I think letting people in is a good
way to keep libraries accessible to all.
If you have any other resources for acronym translations,
please post it in the comments. If you have a preferred way of explaining an
acronym, or if there’s an industry standard I’m unaware of, let me know that, too!
*Adapted from “Eleanor Rigby,” with, of course, greatest deference to The Beatles.
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