Derek's ALIA Blog: Word of the day

Monday 19 March 2007

Word of the day

The National Library gig also gave rise to some expressions which were new to me, although they no doubt form part of the rich institutional dialect of the nation's premier library. "Uncatalogued arrearage" is a nicer way of saying backlog, and "oral history reading room" brings to mind related terms (like movie reading room) which for various reasons never took off.

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What this blog is for

This is a blog which started in 2007 when I was standing for election as vice president of ALIA (the Australian Library and Information Association) - to communicate with members and canvas issues. It also continued during my year as president, which ended in May 2009.

It morphed into a more general blog, and I used it to communicate on a variety of issues - libraries, copyright, the internet, but particularly, just words. Over time, it became a blog mainly about language.

It lapsed in 2012 but I have decided to revive it, and it will be about language and maybe sometimes some other things. Neologisms are unavoidable and an endless source of interest and fun. Talking with a bilingual person, and attempting to learn a language, I have also become more vividly aware of the confusing strangeness of many idioms. I will post about idioms later.

Please promote it to your friends. My short-term goal is to attract a second follower, but I have longer term goals too.