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Looking back over the years, it seems that most of my New Year’s resolutions have been destined for failure, and I am not alone. By the end of January, a third of our resolutions are broken. Why is that? Apparently we make our resolutions too difficult for ourselves to accomplish, thus setting ourselves up for failure. Willpower is the key to keeping your resolutions, or just make them easier to attain. Woodie Guthrie’s 1942 New Year’s resolutions list is a perfect example of making your resolutions an easy goal to attain:

“Take bath”

“Wear clean clothes- look good”

Take a look at the complete list here. And let’s make those resolutions stick this year.

“Study at the library more often”

“Ask the librarian for help”

Happy New Year!

For the last 11 years during final exams, Fintel Library has hosted a well-loved tradition at Roanoke College known as Cafe Fintel, and due to the library getting a real cafe in the spring semester, this will be the last Cafe Fintel.

What is Cafe Fintel, you might ask? During finals week, the Library sets out tables on the main floor in front of the stairwell, and fills them full of snacks and coffee for weary-eyed students that have come to the Library to get some studying in. The added bonus is that the Library stays open 24 hours during finals, too, so you can come here at 2 am AND get free coffee. But only this semester. After that, you may have to pay for the coffee.

Good luck on finals! We’ll see you at Cafe Fintel!

It’s really a common tragedy, and it plays out like this:

Jane Etudiante-Jones has a paper due and she has procrastinated. Or maybe she hasn’t really procrastinated, but things have come up that prevented her from getting the paper done, sports; Greek events; work; you know, life in general.
Now, she’s looking at a whole bunch of assignments, some major social obligations, and her calendar and realizing that that she needs to bust her hump to get it all done.

So the hump-busting commences with a marathon session at the library, maybe some coffee, and a laser-like focus on her paper. Miss Etudiante-Jones is able to find a whole lot of articles and websites that are just perfect for her work, it’s looking like the paper is a slam-dunk. So, she starts writing, copies and pastes several sections from articles into her draft, knowing that she can come back tomorrow and get the citations right, but it feels really good to have pulled together a solid-looking draft. Now it’s on to the next one, this paper is harder and she needs to take more time on it, so the first paper gets back-burner-ed, I mean why not? She already has a draft, right? Do you see where this is going?

Deadlines are amongst the sneakiest of all the monsters created by the civilized world, so when they begin popping up in Jane’s breakfast cereal, and in her e-mail, and in her “OMG, it’s REALLY DUE!” Jane does what she meant to do in the first place, she polishes up her draft and turns it in. Here’s where tragedy takes hold. She has forgotten exactly what information is from which sources, and which is her own. The paper seems to have taken on a mind of its own, and the clock is ticking, ticking, ticking, also some tocking. So, our heroine musters the best of the forces, puts together a plausible-looking works cited page, adds as many parentheticals as she can remember, and sends the paper on its merry way.

Then the letter arrives, the one informing her that she is being brought up on charges of plagiarism, Holy Cow! What happened?

What happened is that Jane did not cite her sources as she went along, hoping that her memory would be good enough to carry her along. It wasn’t. The best (and easiest) way to manage your citations is to go it as you build your paper. Sure, it may take an extra minute (or less) for each bit of material you quote, but it’s worth it. It’s so worth it. The databases in the Fintel Library collection all provide tools that pre-format citations, making the works cited page a no-brainer to create, and that only leaves the in-line citations for the student to create in a few deft keystrokes.

Save yourself the trouble, and please, please, please cite as you go.

Fintel Library subscribes to some excellent resources from Alexander Street Press. We currently have access to more excellent Alexander Street content through a limited trial offer. You can access the material here: http://lit.alexanderstreet.com/wols

Here is a list of the wonderful content that is covered in this limited trial:

Black Short Fiction

Black Women Writers

Caribbean Literature

Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period

Latin American Women Writers

Latino Literature

Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period

South and Southeast Asian Literature

Please contact us if you are interested in this content or if you have any questions regarding the trial (or any other resources we may subscribe to).

The Roanoke College Book Club is currently reading Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. There are copies of this book at the Fintel Library for check-out if you are interested. The Book Club will meet at Fintel Library to discuss the book on December 2nd at 4 pm in classroom 1. We hope to see you there!

It’s that time of year again. The leaves are changing, the wind is howling, and people are dressing up. Yes, Halloween is here, but that’s not what I’m talking about. However, while we are on the subject, are you dressing up for Halloween this year? I did. I bet you can’t guess what my costume is. (Spoiler: I’m a younger librarian).

Back to the original subject of this blog: dressing up. And not for Halloween, but for a more formal event. The President’s Ball is this weekend, and this special event calls for some special attire. While you will not be shunned from the door if you arrive in your cleanest jeans and lesser-distressed Vans, it is expected of you to spruce yourself up a bit from your usual schlepping-to-class attire. It’s a perfect occasion and excuse to go shopping for a new dress or a new button down. So, what are you going to wear? Let’s discuss some options.

Gentlemen: If you have a suit, wear it. Ladies love a man in a suit (especially if you have a vest that matches that jacket). Extra credit will be given to those who consider paying tribute to the host of the ball (Roanoke College President Mike Maxey) by wearing a bow tie to the event.

If you do not have a suit, then at least wear some nice pants (not jeans) and a button down shirt. If you do not have these things, then there are a few options. There is Valley View Mall in Roanoke, which has stores like Belk and Macy’s, which would surely have some nice things to wear. For the fellas on a budget, there’s TJMaxx at Tanglewood and Goodwill in Salem. For those of you who might scoff at finding semi-formal wear at Goodwill, you should visit the place before you judge. There are some excellent items there, but you might have to dig for them.

If none of these options work, then ask a buddy if you can borrow his suit. It will be worth it, especially if the buddy is not going to the Ball. This means there will be more lovely ladies for you to take out on the dance floor.

Also, be sure to wear shoes with toes.

Ladies: Do you have a nice dress that’s been sitting in the back of your closet and you haven’t had a nice event to wear it to? Wait no more. This is the place to wear that dress you bought a year ago and your friend said it was too dressy for college. This is the event to go all out for. Get your hair done. Get your nails done. Go big.

If you’re struggling for where to find a dress, then see the above locations listed for the guys (Valley View Mall and TJMaxx are great places for women’s dresses). There are also local places that have some unique clothes if you’re looking for that stand-out dress. The shop La De Da in Roanoke and the shop Because Girls will be Girls in Salem both offer unique clothing for women. The Girls will be Girls shop in Salem also offers some vintage clothing in their consignment shop, which is always a creative choice.

And if you’re not up for leaving the comfort of your computers, you can always shop online. This librarian’s favorite clothing store, Anthropologie, has overnight shipping so you can get your dress in time for the Ball.

We will see all of you at the President’s Ball this weekend. Good luck, be safe, and have fun.