The Days & Nights of the Lipstick Librarian!

Reading is Dope!

Yesterday I broke down and paid six bucks to see a matinee of Alien. The first time I saw this movie was during the height of my tanned-disco-goddess days (okay; I looked like a hooker, but hey--everyone looked like that in 1979) and the chest-bursting scene still freaks me out (maybe that's why I never had children). What's notably missing from the re-release is the tagline used in the original promo: "In space, no one can hear your scream".

And I do love movie taglines--it's the entertainment industry's way of reducing the work of hundreds of people (not to mention millions of dollars in PR) into one seductive sound bite for thirteen-year olds with too much money and not enough ritalin. As librarians we have tried, in our own endearingly inept way, to compete by coming up with our own hip slogans that will entice unsuspecting teens to actually walk into a library. However we keep just missing the mark("Czech out Prague @ your library"???). This has not gone unnoticed; just check out any episode of The Simpsons that features a visit to the library.

If we want kids to visit the library, we need to come up with catchphrase that resonate with the Youth of Today. Here are my humble submissions:

• Get the 411 @ your library
• Libraries are phat!
• Reading: the booty-call of free entertainment
• Libraries: it's not just for web-surfing anymore!
• Discover that the world existed before Britney @ your library
• Libraries: where alienated twenty-somethings can get a job without having to dress up
• Check-out R-rated movies @ your library
• We have photos of dinosaurs! (maybe)
• Wait two hours for your mom to pick you up after school @ your library
• Late book reports are whack!
• Christina and Justin read books -- we swear!

Feel free to add to the list.

Whack Beauty Tip of the Day: A shout-out goes to Charlotte Sanders, a librarian for Lexis-Nexis who seems to have played fast and loose with library supplies, not to mention her pain levels:

During slow times at the library I'll wax my legs using Cover-Ups® plastic adhesive covers for paperback books. Just press these sheets against your legs (in direction of hair growth, of course!!), pull and the adhesive will yank unsightly hairs right out by the root. Not recommended on bikini line.

Posted by absherl at November 10, 2003 5:09 PM | TrackBack