Saturday 23 April 2011

Putting the pieces together - Part 2

This is me putting my idea for the LISNPN competition into action. As you may remember I designed some mini jigsaws with library advocacy quotes on them, which I then put in cute little boxes like so:
Unfortunately I got to this stage and then went on holiday for 10 days so didn't get any further. (Sheesh, holidays eh? So inconvenient!) So phase 2 of the plan happened today at Cambridge railway station. My first three boxes were strategically placed on benches on platforms which have a regular flow of trains going to London.

Here's box numero uno:
I retreated a little way away to see what would happen. I'd placed my box during a lull between trains, and as the platform began to fill up again, almost straightaway a group of people headed over to the bench.
There were too many people around the bench for me to see clearly what was going on, and when they got on their train it turned out that they'd put the box up on the seat back out of their way. Oh well, at least they didn't chuck it in the bin or brush it off onto the floor! A woman took their seat straightaway but didn't look at the box behind her. When she got on her train I was just about to go and put it back in a more obvious place when a couple walked straight over to the bench, and the woman reached behind her and picked it up :D

Now this was exciting! Would she take a look and put it back down, or take it with her? When the next train came, again there were a lot of people swarming around, but when the platform was clear again, so was the bench!
Resisting the urge to jump on the train after her and go on a trip to London to see her reaction, I did a couple of mental fist pumps* and moved on to box number two.

Here it is, this time I went across to the opposite platform and put it on a seat in one of the waiting booths.
Over the course of about quarter of an hour a few people came and sat in the booth in ones and twos, most giving the box a few curious glances but not moving to pick it up or anything. Then there was a group of four who were there for quite a while.
Their train finally arrived and they got on, leaving empty seats! Yush!

It had taken about 20 minutes for the first puzzle to be picked up, and about 30 for the second, so I decided to leave my third box on a bench (the same one I left the first box on), and head home. I really want to know what the peoples' reactions were when they made them, but I guess that'll have to wait for another time, when I leave them in a cafe or somewhere like that!


*As in I imagined doing them, not the other kind of mental...

4 comments:

  1. Adrienne Cooper23 April 2011 at 21:30

    Such an elegant and creative act of advocacy. Fantastic work :D

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  2. Ooooh, it's exciting! I'm so impressed by this idea :)

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  3. What an excellent idea - it would make my day to find something like this while waiting for a train.

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  4. Thanks for the comments guys :) *now is worried they were all snaffled by librarians*

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