If you’ve spent more than 10 seconds on the Internet lately, you’ve seen and/or taken some form of online poll. They’re very popular on sites like Buzzfeed, and they’re always titled something like, “Which Cupcake Flavor Are You?” or “Which Shade of Mauve Embodies You As A Person?” and the like. Well, here at the DPG, we like having fun, too, so we teamed up with Kara Long (BU libraries metadata librarian and star of our latest podcast) to create our own. Kara provided the awesome artwork you’ll see below, which we think perfectly complements what we’re calling the most important online poll of all time: Which Baylor University Libraries Digital Collection Are YOU?
THE ARTIST
You spend a good deal of time thinking up new melodies, lyrics and remixes of popular songs. When you walk down the street, there’s always a background track playing in your head or through your headphones. You respect the past, but your eyes (and ears) are on the future. You may be a bit of a dreamer, but you’re the first person people call when they want to have a great time. You can say without hesitation that you were in to James Kendis before he was famous (ca. 1918).
THE APOSTLE
You view your life as a journey of faith. You have an un-ironic tattoo of a scripture verse somewhere on your body. You follow the @GWTruettSermons twitter account and retweet its words of wisdom to your friends, who are also your lifegroup members. You have a respect for the spoken Word on vinyl, but a preference for the convenience of digital. You may also love fedoras.
THE ROMANTIC
“How do I love thee?” You’ve got a million ways, and many of them are taken from letters written by poets who died more than a hundred years ago. You adore the look of handwritten correspondence, though you could do without their strange, pre-standardized spelling and punctuation. You have a hard time finding a soul mate who shares your dual loves of spoken verse and whalebone corsets, but because you believe true love conquers all, you keep your chin – and your heart – up.
THE ATHLETE
“Rah, Rah, Sis Boom Bah! Sports Team, Sports Team, Rah-Rah-Rah!” You have the smell of turf in your nostrils and the roar of a crowd in your ears at all times. When people ask how you take your coffee, you say, “With Victory. And two sugars.” You browse the BULAA looking for examples of plays that haven’t been used in almost a century just to confuse the opposition. Pistol formation? Split wing backs? Child’s play. How about a Kaiser Surprise or maybe the old Horse and Buggy? Suit up, player: you’ve got opponents to crush … and search results to peruse.
THE CONSPIRATOR
Psst, hey, buddy. Over here. Don’t make direct eye contact, just listen. There’s a huge batch of declassified documents The Man doesn’t want you to see, and they reveal the truth. About what? EVERYTHING. Just open the Armstrong files and see how deep this goes. Here’s a hint: to the very bottom … and the top.
THE HISTORIAN
You know the ins and outs of the lives of every major player on the world’s stage from 150 B.C. to the end of the Crimean War. You’ve used the phrase, “Actually, according to his personal journal, Black Jack Pershing initially tried to …” with complete sincerity. You prefer the company of archival materials – and fellow historians – to almost anyone, except maybe re-enactors. Or college professors. Or LARPers. You can determine the type of iron gall ink used on a Civil War letter just by inhaling the scent of the paper it’s written on. You may own more than one set of commemorative 1893 World’s Fair silver spoons, but one of them is in a safe deposit box “just in case.”
We hope this has given you better insight into your digital collections proclivities. Be sure to check out all of our collections and spread the word on this quiz. We’d love to see this thing go viral!