As exams draw closer, many students might find themselves beginning to procrastinate on their large-sale assignments as their due dates draw ever closer. Between final projects and research papers, some may not be sure where to start their work, or may have found that they’re project is going to be more complicated than they originally thought. Fortunately, an event coming up at D. H. Hill this Tuesday is set to help students jump right into their work and get a head start on their end of semester work.
Long Night Against Procrastination is an event hosted in collaboration between NCSU Libraries and NC State’s Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services (WSTS). The first iteration of the event was held back in 2015, and is typically held within the last few weeks of the spring and fall semesters here on campus. This semester’s event will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 13, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. in D. H. Hill Library’s Fishbowl Forum.
“We borrowed the title and the concept from some other libraries,” said Anne Burke, the Associate Head of Learning Spaces & Services at D. H. Hill. “There was a library in Germany, I think, that started it… Knowing that students, and everyone, really, tends to procrastinate, we thought that we might as well keep this theme for our event.”
The event will feature individuals from both D.H. Hill and WSTS, who students will be able to meet and work with on their class assignments. Free coffee, pizza and snacks will also be available for students who come by to work.
“There will be several librarians and several consultants from the Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services there,” Burke said. “They’ll generally be providing support for students who are working on those near end of term research and writing assignments. We’re there to encourage people, as the title of the event says, not to procrastinate.”
The day that this year’s event was also intentionally chosen, as mentioned by Alison Edwards, a University Library Technician at D. H. Hill.
“We chose a busy day [for the event],” Edwards said. “We take a look at our statistics from the library and choose a day when we generally have a lot of students in the building, or have historically had a lot of students in the building. We also try to align it with when students have a lot of projects about to be due, and we coordinate with the Writing Center to make sure that day works for them as well.”
For many end of semester projects, a student’s topic of choice for papers or presentations may be more complex that they originally perceived it to be. Fortunately, as Burke spoke about, this event is able to help students get started if they are stuck.
“Very often, especially when you’re researching, you discover that once you start, it may turn out to be a bit more complicated than you originally thought it would be,” Burke said, “so getting students started a little bit earlier before the end of the semester allows them to have that time to work through some of the challenges that they may encounter in doing research.”
Students who have attended the event in the past have been grateful for the help, as well as glad to know that the library is equipped to help with a variety of assignments, as mentioned by Edwards.
“Students are normally very thankful, and are really grateful that we’re there,” Edwards said. “We sit down, one-on-one with them and so I think they really appreciate that. It’s something that’s always available to them, that we’ll sit down one-on-one, but it really makes a difference when students come in and think ‘gosh, I didn’t realize that how many resources that we have access to, I didn’t know how to begin my search, but now I have a better idea.’”
Burke hopes that this event will be able to help students end the semester strong, in addition to introducing them to the resources the library and the tutorial center has available outside of the event.
“We’re hopeful that we can play a part in [students] ending the semester strong,” Burke said. “…the librarians are available [every day of the week], so they don’t have to wait for the Long Night Against Procrastination to get help from a librarian. We’re here, we’re super enthusiastic about helping students and we can be helpful, especially when they’re wrestling with those gnarly research assignments.”
