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A photo service employee of the Knight Library demonstrates how some of the photocopiers received their names. All of the photocopiers in the Knight Library have been named after cartoon characters.
Cartoon names give campus copiers a little character
By Eric Collins
Oregon Daily Emerald
Ren and Stimpy sit facing each
other across the Knight Library’s
fourth floor.
Bart, Lisa and Maggie await in
the library’s Reserve Room.
Then there’s the South Park
kids — Kyle, Cartman, Stan and
an oft-injured Kenny, stuck in
government documents.
Sure, they’re not like the car
toons on television, especially be
cause they aren’t in color. Actual
ly they’re pretty square and quite
uniform, as you would expect in
a library.
OK, so they are just photo
copiers named after cartoons,
with the plaque inside the glass
copy screen to prove it.
The dictionary calls it anthro
pomorphizing, which means as
cribing human form or attribut
es to an animal, plant or object,
and library officials across cam
pus have been giving their
copiers a little personality over
the past few years, if you
haven’t noticed.
The Science Library has its flo
ra, while the Architecture and Al
lied Arts Library has its Disney
characters.
However, the confines of the
Kenneth Lucas Fenton Memorial
Law Library remain with “bor
ing,” numbered copiers, and the
Map and Aerial Photography Li
brary contains only a single, un
named copier.
As hard as it is to imagine, Dex
ter and Dee Dee didn’t always
help with Knight Library photo
copies. When Stephen Onaclea
came to the Knight Library in
1988 to work at its circulation
desk, its 10 copiers were ... ugh ...
numbered.
Once Onaclea joined the li
brary’s copy service a year later,
he found out why numbered
copiers were a problem. When
patrons complained that copier 5
on the second floor broke down,
for example, distinguishing be
tween copier 5 and copier 6 in
volved a complex series of inves
tigative questions — where, what
floor and by what — that took too
much time.
Onaclea acted ... about five
years later. In 1994, he spent his
own money to buy nametags from
a local trophy shop for a couple of
bucks a tag. He ordained every
copier with cartoon themes and
placed the tags inside the glass
screens. “I found that people tend
to remember those more than
numbers,” he said. “It’s fun, too.
People can actually complain
about the copier. It’s a way to
place their frustration."
Luckily Bart won’t tell you to
“eat my shorts” when the paper is
jammed, and Ren won’t say “you
eeediot” if you run out of money.
Yet, one copier seemed to em
brace its personality too well.
Onaclea, now the coordinator of
library copy service, named the
Current Periodicals and Newspa
per Reading Room copiers after
Rocky and Bullwinkle characters.
For some reason Boris, the vil
lainous accomplice of the evil
midget Mr. Big, broke down most
often, “which made sense be
cause he was an evil character on
the show,” he said.
Needless to say, Boris got the
boot, and now the three copiers
work as Natasha, Bullwinkle and
Rocky.
Over the summer, the library
received four new copiers, and
Onaclea replaced some cartoon
show themes with new ones to
make them more consistent.
For example, the three Govern
ment Documents copiers used to
be named after Johnny Quest
characters, but with the addition
of one more copier this summer,
Onaclea had the four he needed
for the South Park kids. He envi
sioned someone complaining that
Kenny broke down, and “being
able to say ‘You killed Kenny,
you bastard!’ just really appealed
to me,” he said.
Although he later admitted
that, “I don’t think we’ll be able to
say ‘you bastard' to their face.”
Across campus, the Science Li
brary jumped on the anthropo
morphic bandwagon this sum
mer, naming its five copiers after
trees — maple, magnolia, tulip,
gingko, oak — only to realize the
irony of the situation: Copiers use
paper ... paper comes from trees
... get it?
But take heart. All Science Li
brary copiers use recycled paper,
said Isabel Stirling, head of the
Science Library. Like the Knight
Library, the copiers were named
and pictures taped nearby each
one to help patrons remember
which machine broke down or
ate their card, she said.
Not to be outdone, the Archi
tecture and Allied Arts Library
used a Disney theme for its three
copiers. A former circulation
manager named its copiers Spot,
Fluffy and Tiger and placed a Dis
ney-themed picture nearby each
one. Circulation Manager Rod —
who declined to give his last
name — said he sticks to using
numbers to differentiate the
copiers instead of using their giv
en animal names.
He isn’t thinking about renam
ing them, however, because “at
this time of year there’s just a lot
more important things we do,” he
said.
The Map and Aerial Photogra
phy Library and Mathematics Li
brary have only one copier each,
so personalizing it isn’t necessary
for helping patrons, library offi
cials said.
However, at the Kenneth Lucas
Fenton Memorial Law Library, its
three copiers remain numeral
ized. Beth Dahl, a circulation
desk worker for four months,
said, “We’re boring.” People usu
ally just tell her the middle one,
one on the left or one on the right
is broke, she said.
“We just don’t do things like
name the copiers,” she said.
Eric Collins covers general assign
ment and feature stories for the
Emerald. He can be reached via e
tnail at ecollins@gladstone.uore
gon.edu.
Residents of Bethel debate parks and recreation measure
By Felicity Ayles
Oregon Daily Emerald
Ballot Measure 20-03, if passed,
will provide more than $25 million
for 13 new parks and open space
projects in Eugene, but some resi
dents are worried the money will
not be spent effectively.
Residents of the Bethel commu
nity met Monday night at the Pe
tersen Bam Community Center to
discuss the ballot and its promises.
The community has not had an
opportunity to vote on a parks is
sue since 1976, City of Eugene
principal park planner John Etter
said. And the citizens of Bethel
want to make sure they use their
vote wisely this time around.
Residents said they don’t want
to spend money on new parks
when the city has not taken care of
the parks already in Eugene.
The measure includes a mix of
proposals that will develop park
lands that already exist, Etter said.
“We want to improve parks we
already own,” he said.
Some residents questioned why
there was not more parkland in
their neighborhoods.
“We want you to take owner
ship of the natural resources and
parks that aren't in your neighbor
hood,” Etter said.
State representative candidate
Jim Seaberry suggested a focus on
the arts in Eugene parks.
Janelle Leson, a Bethel resident,
agreed with Seaberry’s suggestion.
“I have a real problem with con
tinued emphasis on sports and no
emphasis on arts,” Leson said.
“Arts is something that is sadly
rejected," she said.
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