Oh wise wall, tell me a story to help worried freshman get excited about this semester, please. –’27

The big secret about college is you’re actually here to learn how YOU learn: partly about what’s in your classes, mostly about how to get along on your own and relate to a whole bunch of new people from different backgrounds. College is to set you up for continuing to learn how to learn for your whole life, so you do NOT need to get it all right today. Be patient, be curious. You’ve got this. And lots of people on campus can help when you feel like it’s a lot. Because it is. But you’ve got this.

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.