Monday, November 21, 2011

Catalog Card Doodles

My job has some unusual perks. One of them is getting to see what people doodle on the old catalog cards we put out as scrap paper. Here's what I've collected in the past six months or so.

This is the first one I found. No context, no explanation, just a flamingo.


Some express universal feelings.
Everyone feels this way when they do research.
Actually, I think everyone feels this way most of the time.


Others make no particular sense.


I like the noses.


I found these all on separate days. 
By the time I found the third I was like HELLO ALREADY, JEEZ.


Psychoanalysis and the occult.


I do not know why he is saying "poop."


I found this the same day as the robot above.
Was there a late-night robot-drawing contest?


This guy turned up again several days later.
I keep hoping I'll see him again, but no luck yet.


Where are you?


I take this as a personal compliment on my job performance, 
because I try to never leave out dull pencils. 
. . . Yes, my job is deeply challenging.

There are also often six or eight cards with someone's math homework all over them. It's funny the places you come to expect to see math when you work at a university. It's just lying around everywhere. If only osmosis actually worked.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a funny snapshot of momentary glimpses into random minds. I think you should collect as many as you can. Perhaps, when you have a lot, you could replace one of those boring window displays of professor's books with a display of the most interesting, funny, odd doodles.

If you mounted a few of them in one corner of an existing display, I wonder how long it would take for people to notice.

A full fledged exhibit might encourage more doodling when people see that their efforts are appreciated. Or it will convince them to never enter the library again. Either way, it's probably a win-win situation.

Simon said...

They would be a LOT more fun than professor's books . . . but the last time I opened those displays I set off the alarm, so I might wait a while before attempting THAT again. I don't want security to know me by name.