Troubador* (for Troubadour*)

Since never again I'd be happy
nor would I know happiness, without you;
I'd take
such a way
that I'd never be seen by men again;
that day
I'll die,
brave lady, in which I lose you.

--translated excerpt from Kalenda maya by troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueyras

The troubadours, lyric poets from southern France, northern Italy, and northern Spain, flourished from the late 11th to late 13th centuries. These poets often held a knightly rank, and wrote about courtly love, at times setting their poetry to music appropriated from sacred songs or local dance melodies.

The troubadours had a massive social influence and even occasionally partook in politics, being highly favoured by the courts and given freedom of speech. In this way they could be seen as the ancestors of 1960s troubadours, folk singers such as Bob Dylan.

The word troubadour comes from the Occitanian trobar, which means “to find” or “to invent”. It’s your job as a cataloguer to find the typo troubador* in your catalogue, and avoid inventing new errors.

Troubador* is a typo of high probability on the Ballard list, but not all of the hits returned are errors: the company Troubador Publishing, based in London, England spells its name without the second u.

Leanne Olson

(Troubadour image from artfiles.art.com)

Univerist* (for University, Universities, etc.)

Typo of the Day for Librarians
Univerist* (for University, Universities, etc.)

This one is the typo near and dear to my heart, for it's the one I make as a general rule. Many of us work at universities. So one might think this would be a natural, one typed out so many times that it could or should be on "speed dial", if not mental speed dial. If only we could program our brains the way we program our computers. That's just a tad futuristic, even for me. Who knows, in 5, 10, or 15 years, we may be able to do just that.

We aren't there yet, evidenced by the number of times this occurs -- 298 times in OhioLink as a keyword (perhaps this should be a super category unto itself). As it is, you will find this typo on the A list of Typographical errors in library databases.



An image of Heidelberg Universitaet in Germany (from Google Images)

Cary Daniel

Meterolog* (for Meteorolog*)

Red sky at night,
sailors delight

Red sky in the morning,
sailors take warning

Weather forecasting has been attempted by humans for thousands of years, with versions of the above proverb occurring in the Bible and in Shakespeare.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle is considered one of the fathers of weather prediction, having written the book Meteorology around 350 BCE. Some of his knowledge was quite impressive: he described an early version of the hydrological cycle, for example. However, there were also major gaps in the way the ancients thought about weather: Aristotle did not believe that wind was moving air, and he supposed that the west wind was cold because it came from the sunset.

Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere may be getting a little tired of meteorology this time of year, with its predictions of cold, cold, and more cold. To make ourselves feel better, let’s look at the forecast for today in Yellowknife, Canada: -31°C (-24°F). Well…at least it’s sunny?

Watch out for stiff, cold typing fingers: Meterolog* is a typo of the highest probability on the Ballard list, occurring over 140 times in OhioLINK.

If you’re interested in weather, the Library of Congress has a fascinating page about the veracity of the “Red sky at night” adage.

Leanne Olson

(Red sunset at sea in Italy photograph from RayDS's Flickr photostream)

Intrum* (for Instrument, Instrumental, etc.)

Typo of the Day for Librarians
Intrum* (for Instrument, Instrumental, etc.)

As an instrument for today's typo, we bring you Intrum*. As I provide background about this typo, I'm listening to Johann Nepmuk Hummel's Concerto a Trombe Principale (Trumpet Concerto in E Major) streaming over the Internet. This concerto contains more than a few passages requiring a most dexterous fingering from the trumpeter, far more so than is required to type Instrument or Instrumental. Be that as it may, Intrum* occurs 104 times as a keyword search in OhioLINK and 3 times as a subject search (with one of these 3 appearing in 23 different bibliographic records).

As alluded to yesterday, correctness is important in order to lead researchers to needed material. It's instrumental that we persevere.


Not the type of trumpet you play, but at least the black mushroom makes for a tasty soup on a cold winter day, whilst listening to Hummel's Trumpet Concerto in E major.

(Image from Google Images)



You will find this typo in the highest probability category in the Typographical Errors in Library Databases.

Mangm* (for Management, etc.)

Typo of the Day for Librarians
Mangm* (for Management, etc.)

Interesting sounds, that [g] and [ji]. That insignificant "e" takes on greater significance, especially when it's not there.

We assume (perhaps incorrectly) that searchers are speeling (sic) correctly when they search, thus the purpose of the Typo of the Day. If our data is displayed incorrectly, then those searching correctly are far less likely to retrieve what they search, much less what they need.

How we manage our data (typos included) becomes increasingly important. What with so many records being loaded en masse without passing by the human eye, without a concerted effort to "fix the wrong", searchers and researchers may very well miss that seminal work.

There are more than a few of this typo in OhioLink, in fact 171 instances of Mangm* as a keyword search, and 15 instances of Mangm* as a subject search.

While we may not be able to fix 'em all, we can manage to do better, IMHO.

Sometimes trying to work on typos resembles herding cats, albeit without the scratches.



(Image from Google Images)

This many instances of "Mangment" place this typo in the A list (those of highest probability) in Typographical errors found in online library catalogs.

Cary Daniel

Minerolog* (for Mineralog*)

Mineralogy, the study of minerals, is an easy term to misspell. One might hear the ending as “ology” and automatically type it with an o; remembering the word in two parts as “mineral-ogy” rather than “miner-ology” might help. Minerolog* scores a high probability on the Ballard list and occurs over 500 times in Worldcat!

In other superlatives, quartz is one of the most abundant minerals in the Earth’s crust. The amethyst (February’s birthstone) contains more iron oxide (Fe2O3) than any other quartz, and the beautiful purple colour seen in the photo is believed to come from this high iron content.

The name amethyst originated in the Greek word amethystos, meaning “not intoxicated”; the Greeks believed the stone protected its wearer from drunkenness. Perhaps a cataloguer who finds his or her fingers slipping into typos one too many times might try keeping a little amethyst at the desk?

Leanne Olson

(Amethyst photo from The Smithsonian's Department of Mineral Sciences)

Archael* (for Archaeology , Archeology, etc)

Typo of the Day for Librarians
Archael* (for Archaeology , Archeology, etc.)

It's surprising what you find when you dig around. Such was the case in 1989 in Newark, Ohio, when excavators expanding a golf course, unearthed some fossils of mammoth proportions. Okay, it was not a mammoth, but rather a mastodon, aka Mammut americanum. Although not a mammoth, the mastodon was quite large in its own rite. It's amazing the sort of organic material peat will preserve. I attended an academic presentation on the "dig". And recall the speaker saying, that a leaf unearthed with the mastodon, aged (to put it mildly) right before their eyes upon exposure to air. While not organic in nature, preserved for far too long is today's typo.

Digging around a bit found 189 occurrences of Archael* in OhioLink. Archaeolgy does have an alternate spelling, that is to say, of Archeology. So, while the "a" is optional, the "o" is not.

A link to all things mastodonial from the Academy of Natural Sciences.

This typo is in the A category of highest probability in the typographical errors found in online library catalogs (http://terryballard.org/typos/typoscompletealllevels.html)

Extracted, for AUTOCAT, from Typo of the Day for Librarians at
http://librarytypos.blogspot.com/. If you have comments about the
words selected, how they are selected, or the way the items are written,
please contact Terry Ballard .

Cary Daniel