Twelth (for Twelfth)

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

(Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene V)

What makes greatness in cataloguing is oft-debated: efficiency vs. perfect description and extensive keyword access vs. controlled vocabulary are just two aspects of the debate. But it can certainly be argued as well that typos in the catalogue lead to poor information access all around: whether in a subject heading, uniform title, or keyword fields like a contents note, a misspelled word is not helpful in the slightest when it comes to retrieval.

The above quotation is from Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, a title that includes a commonly misspelled word: do a quick search in your library’s catalogue for the typo twelth. A missing "f" ushers no one to greatness.

Leanne Olson

(John Taylor’s painting of William Shakespeare from Britannica Online)

Geroge (George)

Typo of the Day for Librarians
Geroge (for George)

Fans of B.C. and the Wizard of Id, know of Johnny Hart and his abilities in humour and sardonic wit. His Grog character from B.C. fame is described variously as a talking hairball or a mass of hair with arms and legs. Hart's comic strip began in the 50's and contained many unusual characters: from Clumsy Carp, who trips over pebbles yet is able to make "water balls," to apteryx (which is difficult to spell but does not show up much in catalogues, thus will not be a typo of the day—fortunately).

Be it Geroge Washington Carver, or Geroge Gershwin, this misspelling places a rather harsh emphasis on the "g", almost making it akin to the strongman of "millions of years ago".

Image of Grog from Google Images.

You will find this appearing 177 times in OhioLink, thereby placing it on the A list (those of highest probablity) of the Typographical Errors in Library Databases.

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

Baloon* (for Balloon*)

Physicist Auguste Piccard was born on this day in Switzerland, January 28, 1884. He explored the upper stratosphere of the Earth in balloons of his own design, with airtight, pressurized cabins. In 1932, he ascended as high as 17,008 metres (55,800 feet)! Later, he used a similar cabin design to explore the depths of the oceans.

Baloon* is a common typing error for balloon*, occurring over 25 times in OhioLINK (making it of high probability on the Ballard list) and over 200 times in Worldcat, not including the instances of the name Balooni.

Be careful with another possible typo, ballon, because this is also the German word for balloon—think of Nena’s anti-war hit pop song, 99 Luftballons (recorded in English as 99 Red Balloons, though "Luft" simply translates as "air", not "red").

Leanne Olson

(Red balloons photo from Meguapixel's Flickr photostream)

Institi*, Institiu* (for Institution, Institute etc.)

Typo of the Day for Librarians
Institi*, Institiu* (for Institution, Institute etc.)

This is the type of typo that is easy to make, as evidenced by the large number found in OhioLink (200+ to 407, depending on whether the language limit functions properly). This is found in the highest probability category in the Typographical Errors in Library Databases.

You will find this represented by Instition, Institition, and Institiution, among others, either by duplicating the "ti" (probably having that finger strike the "i" instead of the "u"), forgetting the "tu", or by striking both the "i" and the "u" just for good measure.

Given the proximity of the I and U on the standard QWERTY keyboard (there are other keyboards, which separate the I and U), it is understandable how and why this typo appears with such frequency. Interestingly, the layout of the keys was constructed the way we find it today so that the arms controlling the type would not jam. Fine and good for typewriters, not all that necessary for pc keyboards, which are nigh ubiquitous, being found in institutions around the globe.

Be careful of non-English manifestations of "institute". While most every typo you locate will need correction, there are some that are correct in their own right.





Image from Google Images

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

Sporano* for (Soprano*)

On January 26, 1988, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera premiered on Broadway, at the Majestic Theater. Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, it became the longest running Broadway musical in history, overtaking Lloyd Webber’s Cats for the top spot—and it’s still running!

The musical’s protagonist is the beautiful soprano Christine Daae, a role originally performed by Sarah Brightman (pictured here). Christine is a sweet ingénue, very different from the typical soprano diva as seen in the character Carlotta—a diva you would not want to cross by misspelling “soprano” as “sporano"!

Be careful when replacing sporano* in your catalogue, however: this will also catch referrals to Sporanox, a medication used to treat fungal infections.

Sporano* is a typo of high probability on the Ballard List, appearing 24 times in OhioLINK and over 140 in Worldcat.

Leanne Olson

(Photograph of Sarah Brightman as Christine taken from a Geocities Phantom fansite)

Nietzch* (for Nietzsch*)

January 23, 2009 -- Nietzch* (for Nietzsch*)

Philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s name is not the easiest to spell—perhaps a cataloguer would have to be an Übermensch to get it right all the time. The misspelling Nietzch* garners over 500 hits in Worldcat, and appears on the “high probability” Ballard list.

However, the difficulty of keeping the library catalogue perfect does not mean we should give up. The philosopher (pictured here) declared that “admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it” and we must keep from applying this fear of perfection to our own work.

Nietzsche strove to be a bit übermenschlich himself, admiring Renaissance Men such as Leonardo da Vinci. In addition to his philosophical writings, he explored the arts, writing poetry and composing music--he was an excellent pianist, but many have observed that his compositions showed a lack of originality.

Leanne Olson

(image of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche from Wikipedia)

Asociat* (for Association, Associate, etc.)

Typo of the Day for Librarians
Asociat* (for Association, Associate, etc.)


Last week the "i" was absent from "Association"; this week it's the "s" that goes AWOL. Interesting acronym AWOL is. Absent without leave is exactly what has happened to the "s". It almost makes the reader think some sort of "asocial" activity is implied. Such is the potential result of typos: varied and gross misunderstanding, not to mention unfindability.

Perhaps one of the most embarrassing examples is:

By Way of Introduction: A Book List for Young People, compiled by a Joint Committee of the American Library Association and the National Education Asociation.

This is the way an association is supposed to work:




Asociat* appears 101 times on OhioLink, just inching it into the highest probablity category in the Typographical Errors in Library Databases.

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