Yesterday and today I've been a pirate.

No, no, not downloading illegal mp3s or anything. Much more fun. Freshers' fayre is the usual jamboree of clubs and societies and university services and outsiders all "selling" their wares. The Library at OldPlace never got involved with this (I visited once out of interest) and there are arguments for it being something of a waste of time.

But this university had tried it last year with some limited success and with AB visiting over the summer and selling staff on marketing the library more effectively, there was a certain gusto with which some of my more artistic colleagues had decided on a pirate theme and designed treasure chests, bought costumey bits and pieces, created decorations for a stall and rounded up (press-ganged?) volunteers to man the stall. As well as creating a treasure trail round the library.

$80 a day to have the stall space and no one missed either the irony or the humor in our being put next to naval recruiters! Plus two $40 book tokens from a local bookshop to offer as prizes. Plus some money for candy to dole out... It wasn't 'free' advertising - but then as AB had pointed out, given the cost of the resources the library has bought into (buildings, books, electronic, staff) maximising their use should be given a higher priority than it is in some places.

On the stall draped with a large skull and crossbones was the treasure chest decorated with various pearls and necklaces and attractively filled with leaflets and the treasure trail sheets. Books and videos to do with pirates, piracy and the like. But mostly a large breadbasket full of sand and piles of little flags. The idea was for students to guess where the buried treasure was hidden and the nearest flag would win one of the book tokens. While they scribbled name and a contact number (either a phone number or a student number) onto the flag, we could tell them about the treasure trail where they had the chance of winning the other book token, tell them about the library, and given them some specially designed leaflets about the 'buried treasure' in the library. It was very well thought out and for all the fears that some had that it might not 'work', it was tremendously successful. Something like 800 students had a go at planting their flag and more took away leaflets.

When I got there I quickly found that standing behind the stall willing students to stop by wasn't half as effective as standing out in the middle of the thoroughfare offering sweets and promoting the chance of a booktoken for the small effort of putting your name on a flag. Many thought they'd have to pay to enter so the chocolate money I was doling out was a great way of saying "nope - I'll pay you!". Later on I wondered why we weren't handing out pieces of After Eight!?

Of course, there were those who saw us dressed as pirates and thought we were something to do with an amateur dramatic society or a local football club, but no one actually ran off when they found we were from the library. Most were quite amused and some almost impressed that we'd come to promote ourselves.

It was fairly exhausting work (I pretty much collapsed at home at the end of a 2nd day of it) but there were nearby stalls giving away cola or slices of pizza which could be raided for grog and rations. And meeting students later in the day actually doing the treasure trail was quite rewarding as well - though your odds of winning the trail rather than with a flag were much higher!

Despite the senior colleague who semi-seriously suggested we weren't doing the library profession any favors (though I felt happier that my boss was participating too), it seemed worthwhile. And how many other times am I going to have the excuse to wear a large gold ear-ring at work! Aaaarrrr!