Someone at AskMetaFilter has inquired about why so many library OPACs have human names, and Jessamyn has asked for comments, so here is what I posted as a reply:
Here’s a story about how one library accidentally gave their OPAC a personal name:
In 1999 I was working at a community college library, and we were about to go live with our first ILS. Judie, a staff member who had been with the library since it had opened, had retired the day before the server was to be installed. I had been promoted to her position, and so found myself, freshly promoted, standing in the server room with a half-dozen people watching the Sun technician set everything up.
The Sun tech announced that he would need a name for the server. “Library” was the first one suggested. I recall that I suggested “Herman”, after George Harrison’s favorite drink. Someone else suggested “Judie”. We all thought it was fitting.
Of course, we later found out that the name became part of the address of the server (http://judie.foo.bar) and that we couldn’t change it without a great deal of messiness. I felt we should go with the situation and and personalize the OPAC, but it didn’t happen.
Five years later we bought a new server, changed the name to “Library” (and changed all our bookmarks, handouts, etc.) and went forth with a good, solid, generic name for the server.
The best memory, for me, was that the real Judie wouldn’t believe me (or anyone else) about the server being named after her. I think it was several months before she finally accepted that we weren’t pulling some practical joke on her….
