Bit of a social day today what with taking coffee with H in the new extension's cafe, and then lunch with sister in a bar that apparently is the center of the gay scene come evening time.

Meanwhile, our smaller team meeting this afternoon. And having stood around in the foyer for some time during the week waiting to (not) give a tour, it had been impossible not to have a bright idea about something that might work after the tours have finished.

How about playing cards, say four aces and a joker, in five different places around the library (say, the issue desk, enquiry desk and each of the subject enquiry desks) with the basic info from the tour? They'd hardly be collectable but they would perhaps get students to look for the 'set' and contain the most vital [1] of the information they might want.

(It might even be possible to extend the range with Kings and Queens containing the Faculty Librarians - no comments about SN or I being queens though!)

(Another late thought was to put the relevant Dewey numbers (or subject areas) for each floor on the back which would be really useful given our catalog's lack of floor locations.)

With a new assistant though I had a chance not just to present the idea but to actually produce some mocked up versions. D knocked up something like what I'd imagined in Word, I got them laminted and then cut them up. Very nice too. They even seemed to go down well enough in the meeting (though not everyone was there!), but what the Head will make of them I don't know. The only reservation seemed to center around whether playing cards would be likely to offend anyone. Sigh.


[1] Although one of the things I really took away from the conference was to do with the fact it was university academics rather than a library thing. The wider vantage point did remind me that the however 'creative' I might like to think I'm being, it really feels like very small beer compared to some!