[Koha-devel] Reminder: Patrons (good), borrowers (maybe), members (no!)

[MJ Ray]

I was working on a patch and I noticed that I was using "borrower" in
the text, but the file I was editing used "member" more often.  So I
then asked myself which I should use.

Should I use "member" or "borrower"?

And it turns out the answer is "no, probably not".  It should say
"patron"!

See the coding guideline
http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Coding_Guidelines#PERL7:_Definitions
which includes
 * We have decided to use [ODLIS].

http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_p.aspx#patron defines Patron as
Any person who uses the resources and services of a library, not
necessarily a registered borrower. Synonymous with user. Compare with
client.

http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_b.aspx#borrower defines Borrower as
A person who checks out books and other materials from a library.

ODLIS isn't big on member.

At the moment, the templates have about 1250 hits for patron, 800 for
borrower and 400 for member.  Those later two numbers will never get
to zero, as both terms are used in links and variable names, as well
as the text (for example, the borrowernumber query string to various
scripts in the members folder).

But it would be really lovely if we could keep using "Patron" in the
text, please.  Should I open a bug for this?

Thanks,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/