Tell me how the Wall got it’s start. I want to hear more about this wall

Ah, it’s a long story that starts with a tumultuous marriage between a sea-wall on the North Shore and a load-bearing interior wall of a formal dining room in a prewar classic 6 on NY’s upper east side, but I won’t go into the details. (Let’s just say I have a more ecumenical view of sports teams than either of my parents. Oh, the stories the green monster and The House That Ruth Built could tell!) I eventually found a home here at BC in the early 80’s, and in early 2017 my librarian assistants finally figured out how to give voice to my longing to communicate with all the smart humans visiting the library. You can see the entire record of my thousands of answers online: library.bc.edu/answerwall.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.