what's the difference between a depository and a repository? This was asked of me by a patron earlier today who'd ordered up some books from the Harvard Depository, located in fabulous Southborough, 26 miles due west of here; and although I suspected a formal difference between the two, what it wasn't exactly coming off the top of my head. Well I poked about online and eventually came up with an answer, courtesy of IFLA's (the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, natch!) extremely useful website.
Technically speaking, a depository is a place where materials are "put down", following the Latin etymology of the word - de meaning down or down from and pono meaning place - supposedly in a permanent sense. (another connotation of the Latin prefix de). Depositories are meant hold collections of non-circulating materials, such as Government Documents. A repository however is a combination of the Latin re plus the verb for putting or placing, re meaning again or back. Therefore repositories contain items that are expected to circulate, back and/or again.
So what does this mean? Technically speaking, the Harvard Depository is a repository, not a depository! May I should tell the head librarian...
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