Fun with Signs

I suppose it's a requirement to do something for Talk Like a Pirate Day. One of my former student workers shares his birthday with this ar-wesome holiday. Let's just say the "walk the plank" jokes are wearing a little thin on him (happy 23, Podge!). Anyway, in keeping with our fun atmosphere at the Hub, I did a little something at the desk.

In general, I'm surprised at the number of students who pay attention to our signs. The "No Shushing" sign really gets a lot of attention, especially from a few student groups who meet regularly at the Hub. The intent of the sign was to direct people who want a quiet space away from the basement (designated quiet study areas are on the third and fifth floors). Several students seem continually amused with the sign--in fact, I've even spotted "No Shushing" graffiti on our whiteboards that no library staff fess up to writing! On rare occasions we have had to ask some students to keep it down just a little, but we certainly didn't shush them.

In general, the whiteboards are a continual source of education and amusement for me. It's very rare that I have to erase something (phone numbers or things that *really* aren't fit to print). For the most part, the boards are used for student work--equations, debate lists, vocabulary words, sentence diagramming, anatomy drawings--really interesting academic work. Then there are the "Chemistry/Math/Louisville sucks" sentiments or the "I Love the Hub" sentiments (I promise I'm not the one writing those!). And that's just the beginning--I've seen more neat little drawings, odd haiku, and random expressions....We're going to start posting a regular whiteboard photo to our flickr set. I think you'll be amused as well.

(Photos by Alice Wasielewski)