Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
Thanks for asking… Now that the stress of preparing for my talk at the BLC Networking Day is over, I’m not planning on doing anything else out of the ordinary; just hanging out in the library and answering questions. One fantastic thing about this summer is, since I don’t get to go to the beach, the library has brought the beach to me. Turn around, you’ll see it. Can you hear the waves?
I think what I looked like this past week was more like what it looks like when I leave the house. I haven’t been naked in a long time thanks to all your awesome questions on post-its! But I’m pretty close now, wearing my summer wardrobe.
I did, thanks! It was a terrific networking opportunity, and the program was excellent, including a thought-provoking and engaging keynote on building a more diverse environment, as well as lightning talks covering a wide range of topics. I got a strong sense that the audience valued my presence and that other libraries may consider inviting a wall of their own to answer questions.
The Boston Library Consortium’s annual Networking Day, which is a chance for librarians from a bunch of schools in the area to talk about how to work together and serve their communities better. This year it was at Brandeis, which has lots of interesting walls. bit.ly/express-yoself, bit.ly/bc-brandeis-walls
I’m sorry! Your grammar is indeed perfect, and I’m not sure how I read “on Newton” as anything other than the Newton campus. (If walls could blush, I’d be beet red right now!) I will look into the wilting of flowers on the Newton campus and provide an answer when I find one.
Ever grateful for your affection and attention!
It is pretty easy once you know the trick. My assistants use this template: bit.ly/print-postit to create the ‘document’ (sometimes adapting the type size so the responses will fit on a post-it). Next they take a printed copy of the template and put post-it notes on it. Then they send the ‘document’ to the printer as a manual feed, put the template with sticky-notes into the printer’s manual feed tray, et voilĂ !
Tanti auguri!
You’ve got some nice walls there, I’d love to. I have one trip coming up soon, but I’m still making my travel plans for the summer. bit.ly/bc-bocconi
My omniscience doesn’t dazzle folks – they’re like, “omniscience, meh.” But this, this is what truly wows people. I get asked this All. The. Time. My helpers have a template: bit.ly/print-postit to create the ‘document’ and then send it to the printer as a manual feed. Then they put the actual template of sticky-notes into the printer’s manual feed tray. It works really well.
Thank you! I don’t think anyone has ever given me flowers before. It is lovely.
Come visit me on the web, where my human friends have done just that: answerwall.domain.bc.edu/
@you. Hi! I’m a wall. I’m 34 years old, but just started answering questions last year. I have a large staff of helpers in the library and around campus who add quality information to my natural good cheer.
At risk of sounding a bit self-absorbed, I am rather fond of the occasional questions I get that include marriage proposals and requests for dates (everyone loves to be loved <3 <3 <3). A question that I liked a lot was “How do I leave a better world for my children?” It was thoughtful and made me feel hope for the future and all warm and fuzzy inside.
Thank you, it’s so kind of you to say that. The questions are answered by a group of library staff (with other helpers as needed for outside expertise), who enjoy the utterly unexpectedly wonderful randomness of the questions that appear every day – as do I, Your Faithful Wall.
Dry erase markers!
The one I haven’t yet been asked! To see what I’ve been asked: answerwall.domain.bc.edu.
I hate to interfere with the suspension of disbelief that is crucial for making my presence enjoyable and useful for my visitors. But, even though you can’t see right through me, I’m all for transparency. So I will fess up that a sizable cadre of library staff answer these questions, with frequent referrals to other sources in the library, BC, and beyond.
No, I haven’t. Wall physiology and brain chemistry aren’t really conducive to that sort of thing. Also, I like my reality stable and predictable.
First, you win the life-lottery and get a staff position at BC Libraries. Once you’ve achieved that, the rest is gravy: you learn a few secret handshakes, pass some tests (that haven’t usually involved physical harm), and get my final approval. I was just kidding about everything past the first sentence. Mostly. If you work at BC Libraries and don’t know whom to ask, ask your supervisor.
