This week the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “What’s the most surprising thing you carry in your backpack?”

Christian Cullen Lopez—“My CE notebook. It’s for business: Competitive Effectiveness.”

Marie Griffin—“I have some applesauce.”

Xiaomeng Zhong—“fruit: an apple and an orange.”

Kylie Frankowski—“I always have tissues and wipes. My friends tease me because I’m like a mom.

Daniel Craft—“A bottle of Dayquil.”

Deyjah Foster—“Piano sheet music: I have 30 pieces of piano sheet music I carry to play at cyber lounge whenever I have free time … Every now and then I carry a Japanese dictionary.”

This week the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “Name one thing that you, as a Villanova student, could not live without.”

Sam Vitale—“Whether in the Library or the individual places inside of each of the buildings, just a quiet place to study. That would be tough to live without.”

Joseph Un—“That’s really simple: a cell phone.”

Gene Alpin—“My family, the support of my family”

Evangelia Makrygiannis—“Just seeing everyone’s smiling faces around campus … if everyone was sad all the time and no one said ‘Hi’ to each other, it wouldn’t be happy.”

Joseph Splendido—“The late-night hours at the Spit [Donahue Court]. It’s really nice to study late there … around 11:00 p.m. or 12:00. It’s a good quiet place.”

This week the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “What’s the most unexpected thing that’s happened to you or that you’ve seen at the Library?”

Angel Wolf—“Most of the time I just come and do my work. Nothing too eventful has happened.”

Carter Young—“They were serving oranges in a bowl at the Learning Support Services. It’s pretty surprising to me that they’d serve fruit instead of candy.”

Sterling Williams—“I was here around 11:00 last night, and that second-floor room—the common area where you can just come in and do whatever work you want—I didn’t expect that room to be almost completely full of students at 11:00 p.m. That’s something I did not expect to see. So I went all the way to the back [of the second floor] to where the couches are to just finish my work.”

Joe Ryan—“I was working on the third floor, it was pretty quiet and some kid got a phone call. And he answered it. And he was talking pretty loud, like ‘Oh yeah, I’ll be there in a second …’ The other people were like, ‘Shh. Shh!’ So he got up and left with his phone. ”

Nicole Buckley—“It was the third week of the semester, and I saw a little, cozy, quiet spot upstairs kind of hidden by that staircase over there. And you had these little tables that you could bring close to yourself while you sit on a nice, comfy couch. It was really nice for studying … like a little secret spot.”

Ellinore Folkesson—“I went to a religious diversity talk … the most surprising thing was just how intrigued I was and how interesting it was. And I didn’t expect that. I’ve been to one of the brown-bag discussions as well, about race. I think it’s amazing that they do these things.

And all the different events that you have going on are really easy to see ‘cause you advertise a lot, which is good.”

This week is fall break, so the Curious ‘Cat is asking Falvey Memorial Library staff, “What’s the best thing about working at the Library?”

Jackie Smith—“The best thing about working at the Library is the people, the other employees. I’ve met some terrific people here, and I enjoy working with them. I also appreciate the ability to flex my schedule, if necessary. And I like having the half days on Fridays during the summer.”

Gina Duffy—“That’s easy: the people that work here. The people that work here are fabulous—always friendly, always helpful. I think that’s number one.”

Laura Matthews—“I enjoy being surrounded by books—so much knowledge, opportunity to learn. And I enjoy the young liveliness of the students, lots of new faces every day. I also enjoy the people who work here. It’s an interesting mix of different personalities, and that makes it enjoyable.”

Laura Hutelmyer—“Am I the first one you’re asking? Have other people said “the people”? For me, it’s the people I work with. Another thing I really like is that I have access to so many resources—because I’m an employee and because I work here in a library with so many databases, books, journals and things like that. I love having access to all those resources. I also love being on such a beautiful campus. It’s really a treat to be able to leave and go outside and just spend a little bit of time outside in the middle of the day. Those are three things I really like about working here.”

Ward Barnes—“I’d say working with young people. For me that’s crucial. I was a teacher for many years, and I have loved working with young people. When I retired I was miserable because I was never around young people. So when I got the job here, that was wonderful. And it’s been wonderful ever since.”

Tricia Kemp—“The best thing is the students, both the students who come to the desk and the ones we work with. They’re just a lot of fun—keep us on our toes. Among the student employees, I have not met one who I did not enjoy working with and getting to know. They are going through a very Interesting time in their lives: they’re making a lot of decisions; there’s a lot of things they’re going through. They are the best, the best thing about working here. ”

This week, the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “What midterm-week strategies or tips have you have found effective/helpful?”

Gina D’Antonio—“Definitely starting early, start studying in advance … start the week before midterm week.”

Branden Garrett—“When it comes to reading just for general texts, I usually divide up my time in specific ways. [With a textbook,] I read for 30 minutes, and then I take a 30 minute break. And then I repeat that [going over the same information]. But then the next round, which is like the third wave, I do an hour break so I can digest that information without tiring out myself. So you really need to have a lot of [time] in order to study a piece of text, especially for chemistry ‘cause there’s a lot to take in. That’s how I do it.”

Atman Gondhi—“I like making charts to organize my work. I basically put everything on a piece of paper, I dictate how much time I’m going to spend on it, and then inevitably I probably will end up falling through on the amount of time—spending more or less time on certain areas. But I always set aside extra time for each section so I can study more at different times. And I like to space out my studying so that more material gets through my head.”

Daniella Reimann—“[I] definitely take some time to exercise in the middle of the day so that I don’t feel overwhelmed with a lot of work, [to] break up [my work], and to always get some sleep. That has to be one of the biggest ones.”

Josh Seong—“Know when your midterm is—keep that date in mind; write it down. Study in advance; make sure you review every time. Once it’s midterm week, you can just study and focus on the sections you have trouble with … If you’ve been studying a lot beforehand, it will be much easier for you.”
 

Molly Flaherty—“Getting enough sleep and making sure to wake up in time to eat a good breakfast before your tests and not rush into it.”

This week, the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “What brings you to the Library today?”

Jamie Silk—“I usually come to the Library in between classes. I feel like it’s easy to get stuff done when it’s nice and quiet, especially today since it’s raining. Sometimes I’ll sit on a bench outside the Library [because] the atmosphere here is nice … nice place to study, either with friends or by myself.”

Rachel Lavelle—“I’m studying for a quiz that I have in 15 minutes. ”

John DiValerio—“I’m just hanging out: doing some homework, doing some research. It’s a rainy day, and I didn’t want to leave the Library ‘cause I have a class downstairs. So I decided to stay put.”

Chelsey Hanson—“I’m studying for an exam. And I like that there’s a lot of people in here because that kind of helps me focus, in a weird way. I like being around a lot of people when I study.”

Gaurav Goel—“I don’t often come to the Library, but sometimes I need some stimulation. It’s a good place for stimulation, seeing different people and especially when I have classes on Mondays and Tuesdays … I’m doing a master’s course here. It’s a good time to meet people, meet with my fellow people who are working … it’s that push … towards an accomplishment.”

Nick Schultz—“I like to use the Library for a place to actually get some work done. I live off campus, so doing work a home becomes tough whenever all the roommates are home; it can be loud. Being here—this place urges you to get more work done.”

This week, the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “If you could change one thing about the Library, what would it be? What about the Library do you hope never changes?”

William Turbett—“Better access to the ability to print at late times of the day: I was [in the library’s 24/7 study lounge] a week ago, it was later in the night … the rest of the Library was closed … and I realized my professor had told me I had to scan something and email it to him. I had a tough time figuring out how to do that because I had no access to the scanner and the printer at that time of night. … Printing for me is not as much of an issue; I do have a personal printer. But it doesn’t have a scanning option. The [library’s] scanner is very helpful: I use it a lot for a lot of different classes. … That is one thing I’d change: access to that in the 24-hour lounge.

“The general hours of the Library: I like that you can almost always show up here and get stuff done. The 24-hour lounge itself—that being available at all times just as a study space—helps me from time to time. I know I don’t work very well in isolated spaces; it’s cool for me if other people are around. It’s generally a place where it’s not distracting, but there are other people there and that dynamic really works well for me.”

Cara Coalo—“More tables for studying.

“I wouldn’t want to change the café area. If anything, I’d make that bigger. That’s just because I like studying with some noise. There’s not always enough space in there.”

Srujanee Pradhan—“I don’t think there’s anything I would change about the Library. I really like it. It’s very quiet here, so if one wants to study it can be done. And it’s also nice that there are white boards here so people can form study groups and they can work here. I really like the layout, too: The way that there’s the café, Holy Grounds, over here there’s computer labs, there’s these awesome chairs. So yeah, I don’t think there’s anything I would change.”

Alexus Reynolds—“The first thing I would change is the amount of [electrical] outlets and accessibility. Sometimes I have trouble finding outlets so that I can charge my devices, like my laptop and my phone.

“And then more group-study rooms because there are not that many group-study rooms. Sometimes my friends and I have a hard time finding places in the Library to do group studies.

“One thing I wouldn’t change is the Writing Center because it’s really helpful.”

Nazelie Doghramadjian—“I would say the whole thing should be 24 hours. The whole library should be 24/7, but that’s very farfetched.

“I don’t think they should ever take the Holy Grounds out. That should not cross anyone’s mind, ever.”

Sabina Williamson—“I would change—on the first floor the soft chairs don’t have any [electrical] outlets in the floor, so whenever my laptop goes dead I have to move. And I’m always so comfortable that I don’t want to move.

“I like the floor setup the way it is. I like that on the first floor I can be social with my friends and study and feel comfortable. And on the second floor there are rooms I can go into that are a little more private but I can still be social. And I like that if I am more serious about my studying I can go to the third or fourth floor.”

This week, the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “When the weather’s this nice, how do you get your studying done?”

Mikaela Yatsinko—“I lie outside … and read my work. I study outdoors.”

Paul Pergolizzi—“For me it really doesn’t matter how good the weather is. I usually just come right into the library. At the present time, it’s usually where I end up studying. … Sometimes I’ll eat outside if it’s this nice.”

Marsha Richard—“I definitely have to be organized and set a time aside to study. And when the weather is this nice, I’ll study outside if I need to … to be able to have the best of both worlds.”

Christie Leonard—“I try to study inside. It’s very tempting, going outside. I just try to push everything else out of my mind except for my work. I’ve found that writing a ‘to do’ list with check boxes to check things off really helps me. That way I can see what I’m doing, and it helps me concentrate more. I think focusing is the biggest thing.”

Michael Bigley—“I try to remain inside; it helps to keep me from distractions. But I think it’s important to enjoy the weather, so I also like to study outside.”

Molly McGuinness—“I take a lot of breaks outside. So I’ll study for an hour then I’ll go side outside with friends for fifteen minutes. … It works.”

This week, the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “What do you wish the Library knew about your needs as a student?”

Peiyan Gong—“It’s a place to study … I’m a senior right now, so it’s been three years getting used to this place. I never think about things [that could be] new.”

Julia Nerney—“I definitely feel that they have the resources that I need, so I don’t generally feel that there’s anything lacking. I’m a neuroscience major, so I don’t necessarily know much about where I would find references for that because I know there are different subject librarians, but I don’t know if there’s one for that specific major. So that’s the only thing I can think of, but I have had a lot of success at the Library in terms of finding what I needed.”

Zach Leone—“I’m a freshman … I’ve only been here a couple of days, but when I ‘ve been using my computer there’ve been times when I needed to plug in, especially if the Wi-Fi goes down having [a way to plug into] the Ethernet would be nice. Other than that, it’s pretty comfortable. I like these chairs.”

Amanda Borroughs—“I’m a grad student, and I went to Villanova undergrad as well. Having been through the transition as the [library’s] second floor was developed … before it was [renovated], I feel that whatever I had needed in that “before” stage, was met [in that upgrade] there’s a more comfortable area—to do work comfortably but also not feel restricted to just studying (like hanging out with friends). A definite quiet study area is necessary, but that’s about it.”

Sally Moon—“The hours that the Library’s open: I think last year or a year-and-a-half ago the Library was open 24 hours near midterm season or finals season, and that really helped me. … Now I live off-campus so it’s hard to focus at home; I tend to focus a lot better in the Library. Even if the first floor were open 24 hours that would help me—probably other students, too.”

Katrina Marks—“It’s good for quiet places to study, which it already has plenty of. I enjoy having the feeling of being alone when I’m studying, so the nooks on the third floor, things like that, I enjoy.”

This week, the Curious ‘Cat asks Villanova students, “Why do you do your printing at the Library?”

Sierra Applegate—“because it’s convenient”

Caroline Nelson—“I’m usually here studying, and it’s just a convenient place to get it done”

Samantha Nitto—“probably because it’s most convenient—I don’t have one in my room, so I can always stop here on my way to classes.”

Lea McNabb—“Well, I have all my classes in Tolentine or Mendel, so it’s just the closest … rather than going to Bartley or something like that. It’s very accessable.”

Charles Smith—“This is just convenient for me today. I was kind of in a hurry … on my way to class kind of in the middle of campus, so it’s convenient for me.”

Emily Walthouse—“To do printing, I know that there are three printers here: there’s two on the first floor and one on the third floor. So I know that a printer’s always going to be available … Even though sometimes the printer’s not always working, I feel that this is the most reliable location. It’s also closer to my classes than the Bartley Print Center or other printing locations.”