Friday, February 20, 2015

Videdisc*, etc. (for Videodisc*)

An astute and observent reader writes in to tell us of a "rather distressing typo that has a staggering 939 occurences in WorldCat: Videdisc (typically in the 300 field)..." He goes on to say that the following variants can also be found: Vidodisc (36 times), Videodis (162 times), Vdeodisc (9 times), Videodic (134 times), Vidoedisc (117 times), Vediodisc (22 times), Vidiodisc (24 times), Videodsic (93 times), and Videodics (354 times). "What on earth is it about this word," he asks, "that we struggle so much with?!" This one is a very big apple to take a bite out of, so just select one or two of these today, if you don't have time to do all of them. And speaking of big apples, one of our reference librarians got a query the other day from a fourth-grader in another state who wanted to know why New York City was called the "Big Apple." Also, why there are "two people that look like angles on the flag?" (Which is a great question, and possibly a typo for another time.) The answers are rather easily discovered on the web, of course, but it's pretty endearing that there are still kids out there who would consider asking a librarian. When my friend replied with the information, the grateful girl wrote back: "Wow when i read the email it was so amazing and so historical it blow my mind. i bet you will never get fired from your job becaese your amazing and so talented your ganna be my favorite librarian." Sweet. Apple polisher or not, I think this kid's probably "ganna" go far. Vide (which is Latin for "see") these typos in your own catalog today—if you manage to fix them all, you just might be our favorite librarian too!

(Sous-Vide Gala Apple, January 1, 1980, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid


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