"Internet" vs. "internet"

[Kathryn Frech <lib@STNY.LRUN.COM>]

>A question was posed to me the other day and I thought I would bring it up
>for some discussion.  A friend of mine wondered why the word "internet" is
>capitalized and the word "library" isn't usually capitalized.
>

I believe that the idea is that "library" is a generic noun,
like "shoe", so it is not capitalized unless one is speaking
of a particular library (Our Town Library). "Internet" refers
to one specific thing, a particular computer network, so it
is capitalized like Arpanet.  Actuallly, of course, now that
the Internet is coming to embrace all computer networks, common
usage is dropping the capitalization more and more, so that
one does see references to "internet" as well as "Internet".

("World Wide Web", however, is always capitalized.)


Kathryn Frech, Librarian
Seton Catholic Central H.S.
Binghamton, NY  13905
(lib@stny.lrun.com)

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