Writing library database descriptions in Plain Language

Abstract

Plain Language is writing intended to be easily comprehensible by its intended audience. Used in government, legal, medical, and now educational writing, the primary goals of Plain Language are greater usability and equitable access. Current practices of describing databases to library users prioritizes marketing language and targets an audience of experts. In this article, the authors share applying Plain Language to library database descriptions to make them more understandable to novice undergraduate researchers. In revising the entire database list using Plain Language principles, they identified best practices for database descriptions. Initial usability results from the project are included.

Keywords:

• Academic libraries
• database descriptions
• jargon
• Plain Language
• undergraduate students
• usability