At the Nashua Public Library we call our colleagues who put most of our books back on the shelves "Pages". I'm guessing that is an old library term. Merriam-Webster, after offering the usual medieval definitions, gives us "one employed to deliver messages, assist patrons, serve as a guide, or attend to similar duties" which is getting close.

But most people think of pages as the paper pages of a book. So it can be confusing.

Our Pages, with help from the rest of the staff, put approximately 700,000 items back on our shelves each year, including books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, and cassettes. Overwhelmingly, they are put back in the right place. Why is that important? Libraries are supposed to be organized places, access is important to the staff and the customer. Once you look up the location of an item in our catalog you expect it to be where that catalog told you it would be. And to a large extent, whether the item is or not depends on the hard work of our Pages.

Many libraries have begun to call Pages, Clerks. Perhaps that is clearer, perhaps that is what we should do. Most of us that work at the Nashua Public Library no longer refer to our customers as library patrons. I always have thought that a patron was someone who provided additional funding for some project in the arts. But most of us still call our automated, integrated on-line list of materials our catalog.

What's in a name? A rose by any other name...