CC&R, C.C.& R., C. C. & R.: Abbreviations and the Digital World

That little old “space key” or its absence can matter, a lot.

Abbreviations can drive one crazy, especially when searching online, either on the free web or in subscription databases. Those of us in the digital searching world know that searching for something by its abbreviation is an exercise in frustration. (Librarians (almost) never give up so it’s not an exercise in futility. We WILL FIND that document, if we have to die (figuratively speaking) trying.)

Most of us vividly remember searches where we had to try a dozen variations on a theme in the effort to locate a case, a person, or a document, where the only unique “name” was an abbreviation.

There are other ways to hide on the internet. A recent example is the company that changed its name from Blackwater to Xe. Try to do some (deep web) online research for Blackwater. Then try to do some substantive and useful research on Xe. (Pretty cool, eh?)

If I ever want to go underground, I’d probably change my name to something like 712, or maybe I’ll abbreviate it to 7.1. 2. (one space) or maybe live dangerously and go with 7. 1. 2. (two spaces), but I wouldn’t want to be confused with the other guy, 7. 1.2., would I?

By the way, CC&R stands for Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions.