Ceci N'est Pas une Pipe

In the library world there's been discussion about the re-naming of various library spaces, say the computer commons or the reference desk. The fixed idea is to put them in phrases with the word "information" or "learning" or "research" or the like. But why do they need obvious descriptors? You don't normally put a sign on your door with the word "door" or on your desk with "desk."

You could, for example, call the reference desk Adventures in Learning or LibraryWorks or Librarian's Revenge or anything else. If that makes you nervous, add a traditional subtitle. Keep in mind that most patrons already know they're in the library, so be-laboring the obvious is unnecessary.

Bacon and Mutton

"Some books," stated Sir Francis Bacon, "are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." In The Book of a Naturalist (George H. Doran, 1919) W. H. Hudson tells of a sheep who "would steal quietly in [my home] and finding a book would catch it hastily up and make off with it. Carrying it off to the plantation she would set it down, put her hoof on it, and start tearing out the leaves and devouring them as expeditiously as possible. Once she had got hold of a book she would not give it up—not all the shouting and chasing after her would make her drop it" (p. 124-125).