[Publib] Biblioblogosphere

[K.G. Schneider]

On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:30:25 -0700 (PDT), "Joe Schallan"
<jschallan at yahoo.com> said:
> This is an actual word used in the American Libraries
> Breaking News story, "Librarians’ Outcry Returns
> 'Abortion' to Federal Health Database."

For the record, I invented this word. (I did not invent the Internet.
But I did invent this word, on February 10, 2004:
http://freerangelibrarian.com/2004/02/10/blogging-about-blogsource-blogging-catch-the-fever/
.) Now you have given me an excuse to discuss it!

"Biblioblogosphere" is not a favorite with everyone, but it has become
popular; a quick Google search shows over 17,000 uses of
"biblioblogosphere" (and even *I* am not that prolific).  I'm pleased to
see our equivalent of the Grey Lady (or is that Gray Lady? Oh never
mind) pick up a term I had developed with tongue firmly in cheek.
"Biblioblogosphere" may be very long, but it is euphonic, and has
semantic strength. "Biblio" (a Greek term) is a common prefix evoking
libraries, while "blogosphere" is already well-established in the
lexicon. 

The length of this term is part of its humor. Its length does suggest
German compound nouns. I was stationed in Germany for two years and even
lived on the economy, where even something like a bank statement had
single words that stretched nearly the entire page. 

However, the mixed, non-Germanic etymology of the roots of this
portmanteau neologism points in other directions. It's more in line with
"supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." (I have an entire blog post about
the etymology of "biblioblogosphere.") 

I also invented MPOW -- an acronym that means My Place Of Work, and
shows up in a couple of acronyym-finders as well as on many blogs -- and
two terms I believe only I use: beerdorphins and cocoadorphins (as in,
"I am feeling puny, but a nice dark chocolate bar could really  boost my
cocoadorphins"). 

Maybe now that American Libraries has used it, "biblioblogosphere" might
go in the dictionary?

Oh, and BIG KUDOS to the librarians who inspired the article American
Libraries wrote -- when it comes to censorship, don't mess with
librarians! (I blogged about them, too... for every action, there is an
equal and opposite blog post...)

K.G. Schneider
kgs at freerangelibrarian.com