Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
It’s fine to be sad sometimes – everyone is – but if you are “too sad” it’s probably time to look for some help to deal with it. Counseling Services has lots of experience helping sad students, so please consider contacting them (bit.ly/BC-counseling or call 2-3310). The Wall hope you find more joy very soon and is rooting for you.
Getting voluntary compliance with any sort of standard is always difficult. The Wall has 2 suggestions: 1) Have a carrot. Find a way to reward those who do follow the standard without punishing those who don’t. 2) Start ’em young. Students, junior faculty, and early career staff are far more receptive to the idea that presentations and work need to follow standards, even if it’s not a requirement. The more that brand standard pops up around the department, the more normalized it will be such that anything different looks strange. Good luck!
I love Taiwan. It’s such a crazy blend of Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese culture, with Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist temples of all kinds, all of which have intricately carved & colorfully painted walls. I don’t eat (I am a wall), but one of my library assistants says to get scallion pancakes from one of the many walk-up windows, oolong tea, and if you’re into that kind of thing, squid-on-a-stick, a popular snack at seaside places like Yehliu. But you need more walls on tall subway platforms in Taipei, or else all the babies will blow away!
I would recommend going to the Boston University website for admissions: bu.edu/admissions. Or did you really mean Boston College, which is where this wall is located? Don’t worry, it’s a common mistake. The two institutions are totally unrelated (except by a major ice hockey rivalry), even though the names are so similar. Here is a link to BC admissions: bc.edu/bc-web/admission. I hope you find the information you’re looking for there, because I’d like to meet you when you enroll!
![Ở đây có ai nói tiếng Việt không??? [Is there anybody speaking Vietnamese here?]](http://library.bc.edu/answerwall/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/aw071618-2.jpg)
Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do have a helper here who is fluent in Vietnamese. Other languages I get assistance with: Akan, Ashanti, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Twi.
One of the Library’s main objectives is to provide users with professional, courteous and timely service. If you feel that our customer service needs improvement, please contact Rodrigo Castro, Head Librarian for Access Services at 617-552-4834, or at castrord@bc.edu.
I’m sorry a boy did something that aggravated you. People are prone to be aggravating. Here are some ways to be aggravating: lie or exaggerate, do something after being asked to stop, fail to listen, break confidences, mind others’ business, brag, complain unproductively, argue frequently, take credit for someone else’s idea, talk over someone, keep silent about what’s bothering you, explain as if someone else is clueless, make broad indefensible generalizations, forget a date or appointment, assume the worst of someone else’s behavior, be quick to aggravate, pretend innocence after doing something aggravating… do any of these sound familiar? Let’s all make a solemn vow to minimize how much we do these things, & we’ll all get along a little better.
Even walls need rest for part of the year, but my helpers and I do miss having students and other folk to talk to.
Why don’t you come on over? (Because, you know, I’m pretty much stuck right here, though occasionally my peeps bring me to conferences and other nice places.)
According to Pantone, the semi-official gods of color, there are 14 different colors of pear. Check them out here: bit.ly/PearColor. However, there is one color Pantone missed…
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. The cool temps in libraries are a side-effect of the primary reason for the A/C: to keep books from getting moist. Mold & mildew thrive in moist environments, and when they thrive, they destroy paper. Too keep the books dry, libraries run the A/C a little more than humans like. Keeping paper dry, in fact, was the reason behind the invention of the first A/C by Willis Carrier – read about it here: bit.ly/Atlantic-AC. Ever notice how the stereotypical librarian image involves a cardigan? Brrr! Librarians agree!
There is a description of the bells of Gasson (did you know there are four of them?) in “The Spirit of the Heights,” a history of BC written by University historian Thomas H. O’Connor and published in 2011. Here’s the part about the ringing: “… from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the bells would announce each quarter of the hour, and every 60 minutes they would toll the exact hour. At noon and again at 6 p.m., the Gasson Tower bells sounded the Angelus as an invitation to all who heard it to pause for a moment of prayer or reflection. The works originally required a twice-weekly hand-winding, but the bells went automatic in the 1960s.
Yes, you can use it to pay at all of the BC bookstores, see details bit.ly/TakesEagleBucks.
You can using Eagle bucks, but not Optional Dining Bucks in the bookstore. Other places you can use them are detailed here: bit.ly/TakesEagleBucks. Some types of funds roll over to next term or are posted to your student account at graduation. For more info see bit.ly/EagleCardFAQ or contact Student services (2-3300 or studentservices@bc.edu).
Sigh… I’m not really in the prognostication game, though I wish I had that kind of foresight. You might consult the prognosticators at FiveThirtyEight.com (bit.ly/45-approval), keeping in mind that their bets on the 2016 election were off the mark. You might do just as well with the online Magic 8-ball: www.indra.com/8ball. (BTW, walls don’t get to vote. Can you do something about that before this November?)
It seems to be the way with the college bookstores The Wall knows of. The best advice seems to be to wait for the end-of-season sales.
You can’t use your BU ID to sign on our computers, but you are welcome to use the guest computers (right behind the Reference Desk) with the guest login. And you can use your BU ID to check out books in the BC Libraries – you don’t even need a Boston Library Consortium card to do that.
🙁 Venezuela certainly seems to be having a tough time of it right now. Unfortunately, the US doesn’t have the best reputation for “helping” in Latin and South American countries. If you want to help, Buzzfeed (of all sites) has put together a list of organizations you can donate to: bit.ly/helpVenezuela
Making friends is very hard – so many things have to go right. As you grow older, you spend less time with a given group of people, and that makes it even harder to find friends. In high school, there’s tons of opportunity to make friends since you’re with (mostly) the same people for hours a day. In college, that’s less true. All you can do is continue to join clubs and put yourself out there. If you’re feeling lonely or depressed, you can also reach out to Counseling Services which might be able to give you more personal advice: bit.ly/BC-counseling.
Many people (including Bill and Hillary Clinton) have found love in a library, so you’re choice of location has promise. Otherwise, picking up someone in a library doesn’t differ much from anywhere else. Make eye contact and determine if the other person is interested in you. If they might be, start a conversation with some general questions to see how interested they really are. Leave the area if you make them uncomfortable (you don’t want to become a stalker). And if you’re trying to pick up a librarian, here are some lines that don’t work (bit.ly/pickup-librarian)
