ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ May 1998/335

No food, no drinks

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S lam  d u n k  t h a t  f o o d  a n d  W e h a t e  t o  b u r s t y o u r b u b b le  D o g g o n e  it! K eep  t h a t  f o o d  
d rin k  b e f o r e  y o u  c o m e  in to  …  b u t  f o o d  a n d  d rin k s  a r e  a n d  d rin k  o u t  o f  t h e  library.
t h e  library. n o t  a llo w e d  in h e r e .

2 3

Food + drinks in libraries = pests + dam­
age. Librarians everyw her e are co n cer ned 
with this problem : patrons w ho bring in 
food and drinks that attract pests that de­
stroy library materials. O ne solution to the 
problem  is a “No food, No drinks” cam ­
paign.

T he Henry Madden Library at Califor - 
nia State University, Fr esno, has fought the 
good fight for several years with a c o n ­
tinuing cam paign using various poster de­
signs and messages, ranging from an Uncle 
Samfinger pointing caricatur e o f Library 
D ean M ichael Gor man declaring “I want 
YOU to stop eating and drinking in the 
library” to W  innie the Pooh with a honey 
pot stuck on his head.

The success o f such a poster cam paign 
is hard, if not im possible, to gauge, but 
the most r ecent one appar ently made some 
impr ession on the patr ons o f the Madden 
Library, if theft o f the posters is any indi­
cation.

The popular posters depicted two well- 
know n campus coaches and the (Bulldog) 
mascot. Besides appealing to the r ecog n i­
tion factor o f the subjects, the posters pro­
jected a sense o f campus community spirit- 
that everyone uses, and should ther e fo re  
help car e for the library.

The athletic “celebrity” posters, with a 
variety o f captions, lend a lighter , m ore

friendly, chiding tone to the ster n “No food, 
No drinks” admonition.

Photographs w ere obtained thr ough the 
campus Sports Infor mation O f fice; permis­
sion to use the images (with photo cr ed ­
its) was granted by that o ffic e  and the 
coaches after m ock-ups o f the posters wer e 
submitted.

Tw elve posters weie placed thr ough- 
out the four-story library; five posters wer e 
stolen. No other posters in the library’s 
cam paign have proven to be as attention- 
getting. We can only hope that the r eal 
m essage— that food and drinks should not 
be consum ed in a library— was appr eci- 
ated, as well.

Notes
1. Basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian with 
his trademark towel-biting gesture. Captions 
included “The library’s out o f bounds to 
eating and drinking” and “Foul! No eating 
or drinking allow ed.”
2. Olympic Gold Medalist and softball coach 
Margie Wright blow ing bubble gum on the 
sidelines.
3. Time out, the Bulldog mascot, pointing 
a big foam finger.

—J a n e t  B a n c r o ft , M a d d e n  L ib r a r y  a t  
C a l i f o r n i a  S t a t e  U n iv e r s it y , F r e s n o ;  
j a n e t _ b r a n c r o ft @ c s u fr e s n o .e d u