What’s in a name?

Image by Jo Peattie

Looking at job vacancies in the education sector it seems that a rough generalisation can be made about nomenclature as follows:

Schools tend to favour library

Sixth form colleges and further education favour Learning Resources Centre

Universities favour Library and Information Services, with the occasional Information Commons.

I have also seen Learning Information Centre (LIC) at a Community College and Library and Learning Spaces, where different zones cater for silent study, group study and phone use.

I am wondering why, as knowledge migrated from print to digital, the word/image of library no longer appeared fit for purpose? I guess many feel that library equates too strongly to books and as such appears outdated and not reflective of the current service provision. The word library does after all come from the Latin liber, meaning the thin rind between the solid wood and the bark of certain trees which was used for writing on, before the invention of paper. But why did the word library fail to evolve?

Susan Beatty and Peggy White in the Journal of eLiteracy (Vol 2, 2005) believe that Information Commons offer innovative space and services to facilitate student learning and by doing so can show an increased relevance to organisational goals.

If one was cynical this could suggest a need to rebrand, market and justify expenditure on the part of the organisation. The need to be inclusive and student centred is imperative and it is certainly easier to rename in a way that appeals to today’s students than try to battle with negative user perceptions. Sheffield University describes its Information Commons with the tag line “more than a library, more than a study space, more than an IT centre.” This succinctly explains the function to include books and space and computers.

Perhaps I am one of the lucky ones because I have such wonderful memories of using a library as a child and adolescent, both public and school libraries. I’m wondering if calling it something other than library is an attempt to combat “library anxiety,” the phenomenon studied by Mellon in 1986, which found that many students believed that other students were more competent at using the library and so suffered from feelings of inferiority.

Whatever the reasoning, and terminology always has meaning behind it, the important thing is that supporting students remains at the heart of good responsive educational libraries.