Sunday, August 07, 2005

(New) Acronyms Are Us!

Geoff writes about the Bodleian Library at Oxford adopting the VTLS library system from Virginia Tech:
Naturally, I checked out their web site. I assumed that the VT in the name stood for Virginia Tech -- after all, both institutions are based in Blacksburg, VA. Nope - VTLS stands for "Visionary Technologies in Library Solutions". (That has to be one of the most blatant acronym redefinitions I've come across.)
As my Constant Readers (all 12 of you) know, I'm a proud Hokie (graduate of Virginia Tech), and unless I'm very mistaken, when the VTLS was created several years ago, the acronym did in fact stand for Virginia Tech Library System. Nobody talked about library "solutions" in 1989. That's a very 1990s, very new-millennium bit of jargon.

It probably has something to do with the company spinning off from the school, and the school protecting it's name. Still glad the Bodleian is using the VTLS, though--at Oxford, no less. I seem to remember it being a pretty good system, no matter what you call it. Though a little less jargon wouldn't hurt, I guess.

1 Comments:

Blogger Alison Rose said...

Now that's a wee bit embarrassing, don't you think? No wonder they don't use "Virginia Tech" in the name anymore. I'd like to have been a fly on the wall during the "uh, guys, about that client we were sure we had sewn up" meeting.

Happy to hear from a fellow Hokie! Come back anytime!

4:40 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home