After Martha gave a presentation to the Special Libraries Association’s Southern California chapter, she was left wondering whether there’s a good collective noun for a group of librarians. A dewey? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Collective Noun for Librarians?”
The other day I had a great time giving a talk to the Southern California chapter of the Special Libraries Association.
Special libraries being libraries that aren’t necessarily academic libraries, but maybe they’re associated with a business or, say, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
It’s a really interesting specialty for librarians.
And I was telling somebody else about what a great time I’d had.
And they said, well, what’s the collective noun for a group of librarians?
And I started thinking about it.
Is there one?
Not that I know of.
But, well, first I thought of a Dewey of librarians.
Yeah, but I understand that the Dewey Decimal System is kind of out in the outs.
Yeah, it is.
It can’t be expanded enough to really encompass all the new ideas.
But maybe our listeners have an idea.
Yeah.
What’s the collective noun for a group of librarians?
877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
A Murmur of Librarians.
My cousin, who is a librarian, suggests:
– a catalogue of librarians
– a classification of librarians
– a cutter of librarians
– a press of librarians
– a trove of librarians
– an index of librarians
Her husband, inspired by a word for a quiet gathering, adds:
– a vigil of librarians
My suggestion was a bunsshhh of librarians, intending to be “bunch” mispronounced by someone used to shushing people all day long, but nobody seemed to get the joke.
A neighbor of mine who is a school librarian here at the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District wrote a wonderful letter to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner yesterday after hearing this question being talked about on “A Way With Words”
http://www.newsminer.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/force-of-librarians/article_68e6e25a-0c82-11e8-90fd-4be5c3eb7842.html
A force of librarians. I like it. If you do too, feel free to pass that link along to your friends, post it on social media, and spread that word around.
A force of librarians, a force for good, an irresistible force, a force to be reckoned with.