Many will leave with a sense of accomplishment and a road map to success in the 鈥渞eal world.鈥� Perhaps they leave with an appreciation for learning, knowing that commencement starts the next step in continuous lifelong learning.

And perhaps they leave with a group of extraordinary friends.

Apart from the curricular and extracurricular activities that comprise an academic career, perhaps some of the greatest educational experiences we receive during our college years are through our fellow students. We are drawn together, naturally, by a whole host of shared experiences. Surviving a difficult course or challenging assignment, accidentally setting off the residence hall鈥檚 fire alarm by burning popcorn, and adapting to a new life away from home, parents and family can nurture lasting bonds of friendship.

Students learn and grow with the help of their friends. We learn from the example of a friend who can stay calm in a crisis, or a friend who can easily express new ideas, or a new friend who demonstrates an openness to and even an enthusiasm for new ideas.

I observed how differently some of my friends learned, and how a reading of the same work could elicit different ideas from them. Discussions of classwork with friends always led to a better understanding of the material, whether we were passing around a dissected fetal pig and discussing its heart and liver, or listening to a description of a psychology project in which two students collected tubes of toothpaste from other friends and tried to decide what the various styles of squeezing the tubes meant about their owners鈥� personalities.

An experience that I shared with a particular group of friends changed my life: 11 months of study in Europe as a sophomore. Traveling, communicating in other languages, and being exposed to art, wonderful music, new food, and interesting people was a situation that brought us together in a unique way. Many of us became steadfast friends.

I hope that this week鈥檚 graduates will experience what I gained while in college: about a dozen of us are still very 鈥渢ogether.鈥� Most of us studied in Europe together. I hope for 2017 graduates that friends will be a lifelong takeaway from your years at college.

After graduation, life intervened. Geographic separation, new careers, graduate schools, families, marriages, partnerships and parenthood all seemed to conspire against us routinely reuniting.

But we kept in touch. We saw each other intermittently at weddings, other social events, at football weekends. We exchanged Christmas cards (even though I am very bad at that), birth announcements, and the occasional sad call to share news of the passing of a parent or family member. But there was always contact, and those of us better at keeping up kept the others informed.

Suddenly we were older. Children left home and lives seemed more stable. And one of our friends came up with the brilliant idea of gathering us at her family鈥檚 vacation home. Her family generously concurred. So for the past decade about a dozen of us have gathered on the shores of Lake Michigan for a few days of fun each year. We talk, take walks, meander into town, cook 鈥渃hick food鈥� (grilled fish, roasted vegetables, salad), drink wine, and take in the beauty of the lake. It is life-affirming and soul-renewing.

Why is this beneficial?

Although we, as a group, are somewhat homogenous, we have learned from the different paths that our lives have taken. No two lives are alike. I have admired the courage and resourcefulness of friends who have faced chronic illness, divorce, the illness of parents, and the long struggle to bring a book to publication. I have rejoiced in the stories of children and grandchildren, athletic achievements, and career successes.

Our homogeneity allows us to try on these experiences as we listen. We all started in the same place, and I can鈥檛 help but feel that perhaps I could gather the strength to do what they have done. And if not, I could certainly call my friends for advice and encouragement.

We are a mutual admiration society. Acceptance is not even a question: We have all been seen by the others in some ridiculous situations. For example, I think every one of us used to roll a knee sock in our long hair at night as a sort of giant, soft curler. Some of us used an office window in the residence hall as a means to escape the bounds of curfew. And there are plenty of situations that cannot be discussed here. So when we are together, our shared past creates an environment of warmth and acceptance.

Every year, we leave feeling closer than ever, remembering the past but creating new memories.

I hope all our graduates maintain contact with their friends so they can continue to learn from them 鈥� and those friendships can continue to grow. They are like no others.

Meg Scharf is associate director for communication, assessment and public relations at 麻豆原创 Libraries. She can be reached at meg@ucf.edu.

In that case, the printed legend created a much-admired local hero because the myth was more compelling, exciting and interesting than the truth. Besides, while the legend was simple, the true story had too many details.

Often the same approach is used today with 鈥渇ake news鈥� and 鈥渁lternate facts鈥� circulating. Those terms do not yet appear in the Oxford English Dictionary, but they may be added in the not-too-distant future.

Unfortunately, legends have a hard time disappearing on college campuses, as well, because new students hear and repeat the stories. One might think of legends on campuses filled with ivy-covered walls and many years of history, but even with 麻豆原创鈥檚 relative youth the campus has a history of unusual, interesting and legendary personalities and occurrences just since the late 1960s.

I have worked in the university library for more than 30 years, so I receive 鈥� and set straight 鈥� many of the questions about the earlier history of the university.

For example, every few years I hear the story of the 鈥渓ibrary jumper.鈥� Supposedly, a distraught student jumped from the balcony of the library. The reasons vary:聽 the stress of finals, breakup with a girlfriend/boyfriend, parental disapproval of choice of a major, etc. Students are certain this happened, because their friends told them the story.

Again, fake news.

It is very hard to dissuade them, to convince them that this never happened. So I tell them that this would have appeared in local and campus newspapers, and if they take the time to search the digitized copies of them, there will not be a story about the incident.

Students sometimes seem disappointed when I respond. They want mystery, drama and the discovery of an old, secret tragedy. For some, it is exciting to hold onto this myth and to be the one who tells new students this secret bit of history. And so every few years, a new group of students will come forward with this story, wanting to know more.

Some fake news is less tragic. My favorite is that nude sunbathing took place on the library balcony back in the wild-and-crazy late 1960s and 鈥�70s.

Once again: fake news.

The locked overlook has wide railings that substantially block the sun and would create fairly big tan lines on anyone seated there. And the design of the building prevents the sun from shining on any section of it directly for a long period of time.

And no, there is no ghost in the library stacks. Or in any of the group study rooms.

Yes, we did have a few streakers on campus back in the day when many campuses had them. But no, there was not a big group of streakers that ran through the library.

And as for the eerie Oviedo Lights and UFOs supposedly spotted nearby, no.

Stories, legends and myths take on a life of their own. They are fun. They are more exciting than many of the routine aspects of university life: classes, assignments and tests.

Off campus, in the so-called real world, fact-checking groups such as Snopes.com, Politifact, and FactCheck.org adhere to principles developed by the Poynter Institute for its International Fact Checking Code to report the facts.

I am hopeful that by encouraging reading, critical thinking and lifelong learning, higher education can prepare students to evaluate what they see and hear for themselves, and leave sensational and less-than-factual stories behind.

Everyone knows some local legends they鈥檝e heard around a campfire, were told on a college campus, or were even repeated yesterday online, but we just need to face those stories with a smile 鈥� and then discern what is true.

Meg Scharf is associate director for communication, assessment and public relations at 麻豆原创 Libraries. She can be reached at meg@ucf.edu.

Listening to a recent TEDx lecture made me pause and think about it.

It caught my interest, so now I must really begin to ask myself, is this true, do I have enough friends?

Yes, I鈥檒l confirm it: I think I actually do have enough friends.

The TEDx presentation was on NPR one weekend afternoon. It was given by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at Oxford University. He has long engaged in the study of social groups and the interaction of friends and family.

The number of friendships we can sustain is actually controlled by our brain鈥檚 neocortex, he said. The 鈥淒unbar number,鈥� as it is known, is the average number of fiends we can have at any particular time. That number is between 120 and 130, or could be as high as 150.

I was skeptical, since I thought that everyone鈥檚 ability to create and sustain friendships was based on their own dispositions as introvert, extrovert, optimist or pessimist. I also suspected that living situations are a variable: I work at a large university in a major metropolitan area, and I am a member of several large groups, so opportunities are created for me to make many friends.

No. No matter what I do, my mind cannot sustain any more than 150 friends at one time, according to Dunbar.

The psychologist defines these 150 friends as people one would want to invite to a big party of friends.

These friends are in layers. There are five that are closest to us, or four if we have a romantic partner. These friends are the most essential to our overall well-being. They tend to have more permanence in our lives. They will help us in a crisis.

As one of six close siblings, I was surprised to hear that brothers and sisters don’t play a role in this inner circle. However, siblings tend to react to us in ways we have come to expect. Dunbar says that our friends can surprise us, react to us in ways that are more stimulating than interactions with siblings. And that increases our well-being.

Outer layers of friends are less intimate. I think, however, that those other layers are helpful in a variety of crises. If the loaf of bread you are trying to bake refuses to rise, you do not necessarily call your most intimate friend; a nearby friend or neighbor with some baking expertise might be your best resource.

A work friend can encourage you when a challenge looms or answer a question you might be afraid to ask anyone else because you think it will make you look naive or stupid.

Parents of your children’s friends can reassure you that their children “went through the same phase.”

The greatest factor in sustaining friendships is interactions with friends 鈥� that is, doing things together. Time spent on activities with friends is the major determinant of the strength and endurance of friendships. It all comes down to our time, a limited commodity.

And that is why the people in our pool of 150 friends shift constantly, dependent on seeing, talking to, interacting, and spending time with these friends.

So what about Facebook friends, Twitter followers, blog posters. Are they are friends? Of course not. Although we interact with some of these folks online, it is not the real-time interaction we need and crave.

I tried counting friends to see if I am measuring up to Dunbar’s mark. It鈥檚 hard to focus on this effort: somewhere around 120, I gave up.

But I am content with knowing I am capable of having enough friendships to sustain me.

Maybe I should just make the effort to be pleasant today. If I am not too crabby, I may meet someone who could become part of my “Dunbar number.”

Meg Scharf is associate director for communication, assessment and public relations at 麻豆原创 Libraries. She can be reached at meg@ucf.edu.

How did he fit all of these activities into his busy life?

He was a self-taught man and constantly worked to improve himself. Franklin planned and managed his time and activities in a disciplined way. A tool he developed for himself was the five-hour rule. The rule dictates that five hours each week must be spent learning 鈥� one hour each day, excepting weekends. It sounds simple.

If you Google 鈥渇ive-hour rule,鈥� you will find claims that many highly successful Americans (Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, etc.) abide by the five-hour rule. There are claims that this makes them better at what they do, more effective and more creative.

Can one hour daily be difficult? It seems like a great idea.

I work in higher education. Creating and providing learning opportunities for students is an important part of our work. We want to inspire our graduates to be lifelong learners.

I love learning! Am I a lifelong learner? Do I provide those opportunities for myself?

Well, perhaps. This requires a little reflection, one of the learning tasks that Benjamin Franklin often used.

Immediately the barriers to setting aside an hour for learning each day come to mind. I sometimes feel that I am not the master of my own time. I carry my cell phone with me everywhere 鈥� well, almost everywhere. I allow it to distract me when I am at home. I feel justified in allowing the distraction because I feel I must be immediately available to family members. Planning the space and time for focused learning appears difficult. But it is not so difficult to be out of reach to phone, computer and television for 60 minutes.

All the disruption has affected our attention span, another barrier to that focused hour of learning. But returning to the old habit of settling down at home to study or work is less of a struggle with time.

I think developing a deeper sense of curiosity can be a barrier as well. Some answers to questions can be found quickly in electronic resources, and we can be satisfied with a simple statement from an electronic reference. Developing the desire to dig deeper for more information, to learn something beyond the simple answer to my question is a habit worth developing.

To get started, what should we learn in our allotted one hour? Anything and everything.

Ben Franklin examined his work and his learning, planning his time carefully, practicing new habits and skills repeatedly. He regarded reading as an important vehicle for learning, and picking up a book that piques our interest can be a great way to start adhering to the five-hour rule. Get a title suggested by Goodreads book-recommendation site on the internet or recommended by a friend or your favorite librarian.

Or take a class. Learning online is available through many informal channels, like TED Talks, which strive to be provocative and instructive. Libraries sometimes make learning modules and other opportunities available. For example, 麻豆原创鈥檚 John C. Hitt Library makes Mango available, which will teach you the rudiments of more than 50 languages using text and audio lessons. Many campuses and businesses make Lynda.com available. Lynda teaches hundreds of topics online at your convenience.

I am planning my hour-long foray into learning each day with increasing success. It feels like this time is for me.

I am almost done with my first learning experience: finishing a book called On Kindness by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor in a thoughtful and reflective manner. I never considered the virtue of kindness to have a history before now. I selected this title because I thought it might have a message about our times. And it is not too long!

While not exactly a New Year鈥檚 resolution, the five-hour rule could result in a feeling of peacefulness and accomplishment each day, not to mention personal achievement.

It鈥檚 2017 鈥� time to learn!

Meg Scharf is associate director for communication, assessment and public relations at 麻豆原创 Libraries. She can be reached at meg@ucf.edu.

Although they can be useful, they also can be a messy nuisance and an ecological nightmare.

Plastic bags can keep things dry if you walk through the rain and they do a nice job of carrying groceries home from the store or toting garbage and lawn clippings to the curb.

If not recycled, however, they can become a big mess. After a single use, many end up in a landfill or on the side of the road, blown by the wind into some weeds. They look awful.

Sometimes plastic bags are discarded in a park or public place or on a beach, a blight on our view of nature. Back in the day before plastic bags were common, when grocery stores packed large brown paper bags with food, I do not ever recall seeing discarded brown paper bags at the side of the road. I am not sure why.

I also dislike the sheer wastefulness of using as many plastic bags as we do. For the most part, it seems that they are used once. Sometimes many plastic bags can be used on the same order. Apples are segregated in a bag of their own from bananas or pears. Heavier items might be double-bagged.

It鈥檚 true: Plastic bags can help when items are cold or moist, such as deli items or meat or freezer items, helping to preserve the food for the trip home, or to contain messes. So there is utility to their use in grocery stores.

But why do we use 100 billion plastic shopping bags each year, according to Greenpeace鈥檚 calculations? An estimated 50 million of those end up in the trash.

They can end up in our lakes, rivers and oceans, and some are actually ingested by fish and marine mammals.

So how do I combat the blight of plastic bags in my own life? I take canvas bags into the grocery and retail stores. They have a great advantage over plastic bags. They are sturdier and can carry heavier items more easily. Some cashiers don鈥檛 like them because they say the bagging area is not set up to accommodate them easily.

I tend to carry canvas bags that I have received at conferences, containing the names of vendors and maybe a slogan or two on the sides. But I have seen others carry canvas bags that are far more attractive than conference bags. Showing yourself to be a nerd who attends conferences is not the only option.

I also refuse bags if I have only one or two items. I do not need a plastic bag to carry a bottle of medicine, tube of sunscreen, package of AAA batteries, or a roll of tape from the store to my car. I鈥檇 like to think that if many people refused to take one or two plastic bags each week, it may have a small effect on the number that end up in the landfill.

Of course, if you just have to use plastic bags, make sure you reuse and recycle them. They can be used to line waste baskets, pick up after dog walks, or carry your wet towel home from the beach. You can even take plastic bags on a return trip to the store and reuse them to bag your newly purchased items.

Some stores have recycling containers where you can return bags. They can then be recycled and turned into a large plastic bench or some other useful item.

There are a growing number of places that restrict the use of plastic bags. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, and Austin, Texas, have limits on single-use bags. In Florida, restricting the use of plastic bags is against the law. Florida Title 29, Chapter 403, Section 7033 prevents cities, counties and towns from requiring fees or placing limits on plastic bags.

So I feel it is my responsibility to take these small measures to limit my own use of plastic bags. It makes a very small difference. At least I will not see the bags I don鈥檛 use on the side of the road, and neither will you.

Meg Scharf is associate director for communication, assessment and public relations at 麻豆原创 Libraries. She can be reached at meg@ucf.edu.

There are a lot of myths out there in the community, however, about life and people on campus. Some are perpetuated by movies and other media, everything from The Absent-Minded Professor to Animal House.

Many think that professors are overly absorbed in their work and one-dimensional, administrators are boring and pompous, students are only here to party, and researchers are nerds who are always in the lab, like the characters in some of Gary Larson鈥檚 Far Side cartoons or the sitcom The Big Bang Theory who wear lab coats and are socially inept.

Very little of this is true.

So, of course, there are myths about the university library, where I work. Friends, neighbors and people in line at the grocery store have asked some of these questions for years:

鈥淎re you on vacation now? You are closed down for the summer, right?鈥� Every summer I receive this one from two or three people. Summer enrollment at 麻豆原创 exceeds 30,000 students. And faculty and graduate research is not a seasonal activity; it is year-round. So we need to be open.

鈥淵ou must get a lot of reading done at work.鈥� I know the commenter means leisure reading, so I wish this were true, every time I hear it.

鈥�Wow, you probably have the chance to buy anything you want to read for the library collection.鈥� Titles the library purchases are meant to support teaching, learning and research in 麻豆原创鈥檚 program offerings. Librarians and teaching faculty build the collections to supply 麻豆原创鈥檚 scholars and researchers with needed resources. There is a Web page for suggested additions to the collection. And there is a browsing collection for leisure reading on the second floor of the John C. Hitt Library, with mysteries, romances and popular fiction—and if you get that autobiography of Keith Richards checked out before I do this weekend, I will just have to read something else! (By the way, Richards said he wanted to be a librarian when he grew up.)

鈥淚t must be nice never having to talk to people all day long at work鈥� or 鈥淚t must be nice to work in such a quiet place.鈥� Not much quieter than many other workplaces. We have two quiet floors, but the other three floors are buzzing with activity from open to close. Yes, librarians talk all day long, to students, teaching faculty, staff and our community.

鈥淚sn鈥檛 everything online now?鈥� A great deal of material is online. Libraries build collections of accurate information and make it available online. We have all come to know that information randomly gathered from the Internet is not always correct or timely. And a great deal of material remains in print. Some material is only available in print; other material is more easily used in print. A recent Pew Research report, Book Reading 2016, states that 65 percent of Americans have read at least one print book in the past 12 months. The typical (median) American has read four books in the past 12 months. Which four books did you read?

鈥淪o why don鈥檛 you just scan/digitize all the books in the library?鈥� Besides the time and expense, and the fact that many still prefer print, an ethical desire to protect copyright keeps us from digitizing our collection. While the library owns 1.6 million print volumes, it also holds close to 150,000 e-books, and has access to titles in the HathiTrust, a partnership of academic and research institutions that offers a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

鈥淒o students still go to the library?鈥� Yes, about 1.26 million visitors walked into the John C. Hitt Library on campus last year, and most were students. They come to research, read, write, reflect and work on class assignments. Many come to use information technology and work collaboratively on presentations or assignments. Others come to consult with librarians, ask questions or receive instruction on the use of library resources. Many students use the library remotely, in their homes, offices and around campus, to research, get resources and interact with librarians, who can answer questions and assist them online.

鈥淒o you really need a new library building?鈥� The has begun at 麻豆原创 and so many of the faculty and staff of the campus libraries have been asked this question lately. Well, as a matter of fact, yes, we need a new library building. And when I write 鈥渨e,鈥� I mean all of us connected to 麻豆原创: faculty, staff, current and future students, and members of the wider community—not just the faculty and staff at the libraries. The need for resources and services to support 麻豆原创鈥檚 research aspirations and teaching and learning is growing exponentially. The 21st Century Library project will provide space designed for students to pursue individual and collaborative research and study. An area for graduate students, a digital commons, an expanded special collections area and much more will be part of the library鈥檚 future.

Yes, there are myths and misconceptions about much of what we do at the university. Just contact us, and we can help you bust some of those myths 鈥� even during summer.

Meg Scharf is associate director for communication, assessment and public relations at 麻豆原创 Libraries. She can be reached at meg@ucf.edu.

The original library was built in 1967 and more than doubled in size with an expansion in 1984. Beginning within the next month, construction will start to enlarge and renovate the building into a 鈥�21st Century Library that is more than a setting to access information,鈥� according to the plans guiding the project, adding that the library will play an active role 鈥渋n the process of knowledge creation.鈥�

鈥淲hen the library opened, services centered around the resources 鈥� mostly print 鈥� that were found using a card catalog. Services are now designed around the needs of the user, providing access to countless resources, print and electronic,鈥� said Meg Scharf, associate director for communication, assessment and public relations at 麻豆原创 Libraries.

鈥淭he John C. Hitt Library is evolving into an exciting and creative learning environment that fosters new knowledge. Students need space for collaborative work, as well as space that emphasizes individual research and reflection.鈥�

The project will be in three phases to serve the more than 63,000 students of the second-largest university in the nation.

The first part, which will add to the library鈥檚 footprint to the north of the current building toward the Student Union, consists of new construction for 113,000 square feet of space for the three-story automated-retrieval center; renovations to restrooms, elevators and fire sprinklers on the top four floors of the library; a redesign of the fifth-floor quiet reading room, and an increase in the number of needed power outlets for students to recharge phones and computers.

The work is expected to be completed by fall 2017, said Maria Teimouri, project manager in facilities planning and construction.

Phase 2 will add a connector building between the existing and new buildings, and Phase 3 will include a comprehensive renovation of the current library. Start dates for those parts of the project will be determined later. The retrieval system will be temporarily connected to the second floor of the library by a bridge until the connector building is completed.

When the project is complete, not all the library鈥檚 1.25 million volumes will be stored for retrieval by the new automated system. About 300,000 of the most current and heavily used volumes and those most suited to browsing will be kept on the open shelves. That includes some of the general collection, reference materials and other items.

Requests for other bound volumes will be made using the library鈥檚 online catalog. The items will be retrieved automatically and delivered to the circulation desk in five to 10 minutes.

The project is designed to improve service for users, who made nearly 1.26 million visits to the building during 2014-15. Many other users access the library鈥檚 services from home, classrooms and offices. The John C. Hitt Library contains the bulk of the university鈥檚 collection, currently at 1.3 million volumes. There are also about 144,000 e-books in the collection and another 231,000 materials in other university libraries.

“The expansion and renovations involved with the 21st Century Library project will provide 麻豆原创 students and faculty with new learning spaces, updated technology, and convenient access to resources necessary to continue to grow as an institution committed to collaborative research and academic excellence,” said Susan Quelly, an assistant professor in the College of Nursing and a member of the 麻豆原创 library advisory committee.

麻豆原创鈥檚 21st Century Library will feature:

Collectively, 麻豆原创 ranked 70 on the list. But its use of Facebook was ranked 3rd in the nation. The library ranked 16th for its use of Google Plus and 41st for Twitter. The library came in at 100 for YouTube.

The 麻豆原创 Library has more than 2,700 likes on Facebook and has had more than 24,000 visitors as of today. The library also has more than 800 followers on Twitter.

鈥淲e鈥檙e thrilled,鈥� said Meg Scharf, a spokeswoman for the library.聽 鈥淲e recognize social media as a very important way to reach our audience, and we鈥檝e tried to make the best use of it. It鈥檚 nice to be recognized.鈥�

The University of Texas at Austin earned first place. Four other Florida university libraries earned spots on the list: Florida State University at 40, FIU鈥檚 Medical Library at 85, USF at 91 and Rollins College at 98.

For a complete list visit .

LibraryScienceList.com produced the list from a field of 442 colleges and universities that use social media to engage its audiences.

LibraryScienceList.com is a new library science social community for librarians around the world. According to its website, the organization is 鈥渞un by data and editorial geeks with a handful of librarians as associates. The goal is to use all avenues to inform and educate students about libraries.鈥�