Traveler,
why? Why a new name for LFTLA?
Why this name?
First, the Arkansas State
Library and Network Advisory Committee want to make sure that news about the
online database project will get to all the eligible libraries.
Acronyms, while convenient, are awkward and hard to remember.
To solve the name
recognition problem, the Network Advisory Committee reviewed a list of Arkansas
symbols (taken from Secretary of State’s web site). The symbols for Arkansas ran the spectrum -- animal,
vegetable and mineral. The
committee all favored Traveler.
Then came questions from
vendors and others about the origin of the name. There were conflicting answers, but of course,
the librarians prevailed.
Finally, here is a
brief description of the Arkansas Traveller story to demonstrate how Traveler
and searching for knowledge through online databases has its roots in Arkansas
Folklore.
A lone rider was making
his way through the Ozark Mountain country, heading for Little Rock.
While admiring the amazing scenery that surrounded him the stranger
didn’t notice that it was growing dark. Suddenly
he realized that he was lost in the wilderness of trees and hills with darkness
only making the situation worse.
Then clear in the night
sky came a familiar sound – a tune being played on a fiddle.
The rider headed toward the sound, and it lead him to a cabin.
On the porch was a man playing the sweet tune that lead the stranger out
of the woods. The man on the porch
was the first Ozark mountaineer the rider had ever seen, and he was curious that
the man was playing the beginning of a jig over and over again.
The Ozark man was cautious
of the stranger at first as the pair shot questions and answers back and forth.
Neither was satisfied with the little information that was the result.
Then the stranger asked the settler why he kept repeating the same broken
tune. When he discovered the man
was trying to remember the tune, he offered to help because he played the fiddle
also. The stranger played the jig
from beginning to end.
When the last note died
down, the settler called to his wife and children to prepare food and lodging
for his new friend. The lone rider
was now a welcome guest in the Arkansas home.
So, not only does this
story tell about Arkansas’s first tourist, it also details the first Reference
Interview to take place in Arkansas.
We have a direct connection to those who settled and visited Arkansas in
the pioneer days. They were
strangers seeking and exchanging information to enrich their every day lives,
just as Arkansans are today when they visit academic, public, school, or special
libraries to access Traveler’s databases.