Erogonomics (for Ergonomics)

The International Ergonomics Association defines its area of study as "the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance." We librarian types should be interested in ergonomics, as should all those whose vocations involve repetitive motions.

Erogonomics is listed as a lowest-probability typo, and there are currently 2 occurrences of it in the OhioLink database. So the keystrokes required to correct these errors in your own catalog should pose no threat!

(Ergonomic Glows by ljleavell, from the Stock.XCHNG photo site)

Deb Kulczak

Verison (for Version)

Verison is a low-probability typo with 10 entries in the OhioLink database. All of them represent the word version. But an effective advertising campaign by the wireless giant Verizon guaranteed that I would read today's typo as a misspelling of their company name. Can you hear me now?

(Verizon ad in Chinatown, San Francisco, posted by Patrick Swint on Flickr)

Deb Kulczak

Nationa (for National, Nations, etc.)

Last week yielded a bumper crop of politicians on national television–outside the news, that is. President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton each appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, and while these two interviews were rather dignified affairs, the same really cannot be said of Tom DeLay’s performance on Dancing with the Stars. The costumed former Congressman could be seen hamming it up for the cameras and shaking his booty as he danced the cha-cha-cha with partner Cheryl Burke to the tune of “Wild Thing.”

If you want to keep tabs on DeLay’s progress, you can follow him on Twitter. If, however, you’re more concerned about your catalog’s performance, hunt down and correct instances of Nationa. This high-probability typo occurs 34 times in OhioLink English-language entries, and most of them are in transcribed fields.

("Dancing with the Stars" set, by Jeff Henshaw, from Flickr)

Deb Kulczak

Stoney (for Stony)

Along with the rest of the green world, Stony Brook University bid farewell to a beloved biology professor when renowned ecologist Larry Slobodkin died at his home on Long Island, New York, on September 11, 2009. Larry began graduate studies at Yale University at the age of 18, working with the esteemed G. Evelyn Hutchinson, and later took a job at Stony Brook where he founded the first department of ecology and evolutionary biology in the country, according to his obituary in the New York Times. Lawrence Basil Slobodkin was 33 years old when his father illustrated Andrew Packard's Mr. Spindles and the Spiders in 1961. In this charming children's book Louis gently ribs his scientist son with a tiny shingle reading "Prof. L. B. Slokin, Specialist" on the page where the author defines a specialist as "a man you read about in the newspapers who knows only one thing." As a polymath who brought an artistic sensibility to the world of science, Larry knew considerably more than that. Among other things, he coauthored the seminal paper known in environmental circles as "The World Is Green" and graced us with this autobiographical essay (ironically containing a variant of today's typo right in the header) published in 2009. Stoney Brook appears twice in OhioLINK and Stony + Stoney turns up ten times.

(Larry Slobodkin thinking Deep Thoughts at Yale.)

Carol Reid

Salve* (for Slave*)

There is no salve on earth capable of easing the unspeakable pain of slavery. During Reconstruction, freed slaves were promised "forty acres and a mule," although that supposed compensation for their trouble was later rescinded. Today our leaders are still debating "reparations" as a way of saying we're sorry. But such gestures don't begin to touch the truth of it, nor should we ever allow ourselves to forget this terrible chapter in American history. OhioLINK reveals five instances of Salvery for slavery and a combined search on Salve* + Slave* returns 21 hits, although half a dozen or more are not typographical errors.

(Scars of a whipped slave, April 2, 1863, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Original caption: "Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer. The very words of poor Peter, taken as he sat for his picture." From Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Writting* (for Writing*)

Library hand is what they used to call that beautiful, upstanding, somewhat left-leaning handwriting seen on library catalog cards. It was actually taught to students in library school and was the brainchild of Melvil Dewey. Sadly, the authority record for Library handwriting doesn't even include Library hand as a cross reference. How quickly they forget! But if you prefer to remember, check out those titles found in WorldCat under that subject heading, which include several by Dewey and one by IUriĭ Vladimirovich Grigor'ev, along with Deutsche Büchereihandschrift by Erwin Ackerknecht (1925) and Library Hand: A Lost Art by Thomas Graham Lee (1977). Another possibility for gaining insight into the mysterious world of library hand is John Cotton Dana's A Library Primer published in 1920. (This one was mentioned on the Web, but does not contain the Library handwriting heading in OCLC.) And, lastly, for you true romantics who might want to try and recreate this golden age in your own manual communication, a nice essay by Emily Yoffe on Slate tells us who to see about improving our penmanship. Writting* appears 21 times in OhioLINK, one with a "sic" and a couple others too old for us to be sure whether or not spelling counts.

(Boston Public Library view, from Flickr.)

Carol Reid

Miniscul* (for Minuscul*)

Some schools probably spend too much time working on the dress code (in my day, it was the length of the girls' skirts and the boys' hair) and not enough time working on the spelling of tricky words like minuscule. A search in OhioLINK for Miniscul* gets 11 hits, making this far more than a minuscule typo—after all, the correct spelling only gets 93. Take special care to consult the source directly before making any changes (if the error occurs in a transcribed field). This is a remarkably easy mistake to make, though. The U and I keys are right next to each other; it's an extremely common misspelling; and the cataloger may have been momentarily distracted by hazy memories of miniskirts in high school.

(Prize Winners at the Wenman School in July 1970, from Flickr.)

Carol Reid