Liz’s Library Jargon Glossary
Hello, Patrons! Ever start talking to one of us here at the library and get the sense that we’re actually speaking a different language? Well, here are some commonly used Librarian phrases and their meanings.
- Patron: (n) A person who uses the library. AKA: You! Other libraries also use the words “Customer” or “User.” We prefer “Patron” because without your support, or patronage, we wouldn’t have a Library to begin with.
- Processing: (v) The task of getting items ready to be checked out. This includes adding labels, bar-codes, and stamps to the materials and putting the record in the system.
- Polaris: (n) Our computer system. It houses all of our records for every item we circulate and all of our patrons. (No wonder we get stressed out when “Polaris” goes down!)
- ILL: Inter-Library-Loan; (v) the process of borrowing a book from a different library. We contact the other library, check it out (as if we were a patron), have it sent to us, add it temporarily to Polaris, then call the Patron who requested it. (n) An item that has been obtained from another library. Learn More.
- Weeding: (v) The process of removing books that are outdated, no longer circulate, or are in bad shape from the library shelves. No, we are not working outside. But just as a successful garden requires weeding, so does a successful library.
What other words or phrases have you heard us use at the Library?
-Liz Strauss
Teen Librarian
