Classics in the Million Book Library

Crane, Gregory; Babeu, Alison; Bamman, David; Breuel, Thomas M.; Cerrato, Lisa; Deckers, Daniel; Lüdeling, Anke; Mimno, David; Singhal, Rashmi; Smith, David A.; Zeldes, Amir

doi:10.31826/9781463219222-016

Cited by 2 publications

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The Changing Role of Special Collections in Scholarly Communications

Waters¹

2009

RLI

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In October 1995, I was co-chair of the Task Force on the Archiving of Digital Information. I stood before the assembled membership of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and reported dutifully on the progress of the Task Force (Waters 1995). I noted in my talk then that William Safire had recently devoted his wonderful "On Language" column in the New York Times Magazine to the topic of kids' slang. He advised that "if you want to stay on the generational offensive, when your offspring use the clichéd 'gimme a break,' you can top that expression of sympathetic disbelief with 'jump back' and the ever-popular riposte 'whatever.'" However, he also noted that some expressions, such as "I'm outta here" or "I'm history," had become very much dated. Quoting from a study of slang, Safire pointed out that "I'm history," is "a parting phrase modeled on an underworld expression referring to death, and it has both inspired and been replaced by the more trendy expression, 'I'm archives'" (Safire 1995: 30). Today, according to a recent article in the "Sunday Styles" section of the New York Times, the trendy have taken their slang to an even higher level of sophistication. They are now studiously avoiding being associated with mundane activities such as "hosting" or "selecting," and are instead opting to engage in the more up-to-the-minute and stylish activity of "curating."

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