Moving Up in the World on Library

Librarian DiAnna Diaz

June 17, 2011 10:05 AM

Library Assitant and Monitor sign-up by Librarian DiAnna Diaz

Last year the new librarian had been appreciative of the help offered by the students to help her settle in and get to grips with the school’s library. This year, while she was comfortable among the stacks and with her duties as a librarian, DiAnna had also taken on the temporary role of divinations professor, and so had less time on her hands than she’d originally been anticipating when she accepted the role of librarian. Luckily, this wasn’t an issue, because there seemed to be a handful of students who were eager to assist with library duties. They might not be the same group as those who’d volunteered last year, but Miss Diaz was certain that there would be some interest. So, about a week and a half into the new school year, she again advertised the positions that not only helped her out, but undoubtedly looked good on the students’ academic records.

The notice was written on parchment in black ink, as last year, only this year DiAnna had not restrained herself from drawing small purple stars on it for decoration. Her neat, curly handwriting, read:

Would you like to volunteer in the library a few hours a week? There are two roles for you to consider: Library Monitors will help to check books in and out, organize the stacks, answer student queries, and complete occasional errands for the librarian. With fewer responsibilities, Library Assistants will place returned books back to their correct position in the stacks, and help the Library Monitors where necessary. If you would like to be considered for either of these roles, please register your interest by signing your name, year, and role preference below. If you have any questions, please see Miss Diaz.

When it was complete, DiAnna put it up on the notice board in the library even before the ink was dry – her cat, Midnight, had taken to walking across her paperwork, and she didn’t want a trail of paw prints across the sign-up sheet; the stars were quite enough.

Subthreads:

Here again by Daniel Nash

Moving Up in the World by Renée Errant

Consolidating and Planning. by Rachel Bauer

I love sign-up sheets! by Cherry Bosko

Adding my name by Samantha Hamilton

Signing up. by Russell Layne

0 Librarian DiAnna Diaz Library Assitant and Monitor sign-up 0 Librarian DiAnna Diaz 1 5

Daniel Nash

June 17, 2011 11:37 AM

Here again by Daniel Nash

Daniel stopped in front of the library's bulletin board when he spotted the sign-ups for monitor/assistant. For a brief moment, he considered not putting his name down again. He no longer needed to impress anybody to get or retain Head Boy. Of course, he still had college applications to send out, and helping out in the library would certainly sound just as good on those.

Of course, he still had Head Boy duties, and Captain-y things to do, to say nothing of his upcoming RATS, so Monitor was out of the question. He just didn't have the time for that. Assistant, on the other hand, was doable. He'd done that last year, so he was confident that the time commitment for that position would not break him.

Daniel Nash, Seventh Year, Assistant

He stepped back to check his writing, make sure it was perfectly legible and he'd spelled everything correctly. For a moment, he considered putting in his numeral for completeness' sake, but decided it was contrary to the 'less formal' resolution he'd made at the bonfire last year. He left it as it was and went to get lunch.

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Renée Errant

June 17, 2011 3:09 PM

Moving Up in the World by Renée Errant

Though she hadn't ever had a particular fondness for libraries, Renée had actually enjoyed her time as a Library Assistant last year. Sorting through the books, she'd actually picked up on interesting facts, spells, and it was almost like studying without the bother of boredom. And when there was nothing much to do, or stuff to do but a fair amount of time to do it, she could hole herself in some dark corner of the library and fool around and read, or practice spells she found and were too difficult to master though that didn't prevent it from being any less fun. 'Still,' Renée now made her way toward the sign up sheet, simple gold hoops draping her cheeks, taking out a quill from her bag and dipping it in a nearby ink bottle, raising it to the parchment and pressing lightly on it. 'That was when I was a child.'

This year she was a woman, and so being a simple Assistant would no longer do. She had to start taking more responsibility, make her presence known (she had always been a bit shy), and prove to Soledad and Oro that she was worthy of everything they were staking on her.

Renée Errant
Third Year, Crotalus
Library Monitor

Library Assistant last year, Library Monitor this year, and since she was only ever able to move up (staying in the same place, moving sideways... she couldn't handle that) perhaps next year she'd be the librarian. With that happy and vaguely mutinous thought, Renée lowered her quill and turned to leave the library, waving a hand at the current librarian when she thought she saw her.

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Rachel Bauer

June 20, 2011 7:12 PM

Consolidating and Planning. by Rachel Bauer

Having successfully netted herself a position as prefect, Rachel could see no logical course of action other than to attempt to become Head Girl. That one wouldn’t be a simple case of having what Raines did not, but if by some bizarre chance – or by the expenditure of a large sum of money – Raines managed to become Head Boy, at least she would remain on equal footing with him instead of becoming, as a prefect, his subordinate.

Some might have questioned whether the universe really hated Rachel enough to take one of her few strokes of true good fortune at this school and turn it into a curse, but she didn’t question it at all. If she wasn’t actively working to prevent it, then what her uncle Geoff called the Layne curse would take everything and ruin it. She would be done. She might be anyway, but at least if she tried really hard, she would have that to make her feel better about it all when things crashed down. If she just accepted Fate, she didn’t think she’d be able to stand it.

Being a good prefect was key. Everything that was asked of her, she would do, and do enthusiastically, and she would volunteer for anything they asked for a volunteer for, and she spent some time even trying to think up extra things to do and offer to do just to make her position more secure. The first two categories took priority, though, and volunteering could take place outside of her role as prefect, so when she saw the sign-up sheet go up in the library again, Rachel signed up quickly, hoping Samantha would come back again, too, but knowing she needed to be there even if the other girl wasn’t.

Rachel Bauer, 5th year, Library Monitor

16 Rachel Bauer Consolidating and Planning. 154 Rachel Bauer 0 5

Cherry Bosko

June 22, 2011 11:08 PM

I love sign-up sheets! by Cherry Bosko

Cherry Bosko was just leaving the library, having returned a book on the history of Sonora, when she noticed the purple hearts on the bulletin board and read the notice. While she wasn't particularly interested in reading and was a little scared of the Crup's Book of Dogs, it seemed to her that if she became a library assistant, she would learn the layout of library, get to know some upper class students, and become familiar with some of the books there. Even if she only stuck around as a library assistant for couple months, it could be worthwhile.

Mostly, though, Cherry just couldn't resist a sign-up sheet. There was something about them that just brimmed with possibilities: Cursive. Print. Calligraphy. Blue. Black. Purple. Green. Small. Large.

Cherry pulled out a green Endless Ink Pen and paused to plan out her font size and spacing. Then, she neatly printed her name in a small font that allowed her to keep everything on a single line with equal spacing on either side.

Cherry Bosko, First Year, Library Assistant

She nodded to herself, satisfied, then reread what exactly it was she was signing up for and was mildly disappointed that only the library monitors checked books in and out. That was the part that sounded most interesting.

0 Cherry Bosko I love sign-up sheets! 0 Cherry Bosko 0 5

Samantha Hamilton

June 24, 2011 1:29 PM

Adding my name by Samantha Hamilton

being library assistant last year had actually turned out to be good fun. Samantha had initially signed up simply because she liked reading, but she'd ended up getting know Rachel Bauer, and learning some life-changing spells. Besides, she already spent a lot of time in the library, so it just made sense for her to help out while she was there. On top of all that, Miss Diaz was nice, and Samantha didn't mind helping out, especially if the deed got her noticed by the faculty for being helpful - that sort of thing definiely couldn't hurt.

Once the sign-up sheet had been posted, Samantha read those who'd already signed up. She'd been a monitor last year, feeling that was a natural progression from her being an assistant the year previously. Renée seemed to have had the same idea, which meant that even though a first year had signed up, there would still be more monitors than assistants, which felt like the wrong way round to Samantha. Nevertheless, she wasn't going to take a step backwards just to balance out numbers. Daniel Nash had plenty of excuses for just being an assistant, considering he was Quidditch Captain and Head Boy (which was the correct order of importance as far as Samantha was concerned) but as she herself wasn't taking any extra-curricular activities this year, she really couldn't justify simply being an assistant. Therefore, she signed her name up on the sheet:

Samantha Hamilton, Fourth year, Library Monitor.

Maybe some more first years would sign up yet, and balance out the assitant numbers.

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Russell Layne

June 30, 2011 1:32 AM

Signing up. by Russell Layne

Russell had considered the library assistant sign-up sheet last year, but hadn’t done anything with it. He had learned the library fairly quickly, he had a good sense of direction that seldom failed him and a strong interest based on multiple factors in learning the layout of the place quickly, but he hadn’t known his way around at first, and the only people he thought would take a first year very seriously were….people not in school yet, which wasn’t helpful when he was at school and they, by definition, weren’t.

Now, though, he was in second year, and while most people still weren’t going to take him that seriously, maybe the first years would. They might be more comfortable asking someone a little closer to their age about stuff instead of prefects, too; he guessed he could have made himself go up to Rachel Bauer last year, could have even, if he really needed to, asked Daniel about something once they’d had enough Quidditch practices to establish that the Head Boy wasn’t that bad, but he’d been here a year and not heard any stories about older kids doing stuff to younger ones and he still found the upper years a little intimidating, though he knew better than to ever admit that. He didn’t see his mini-adult roommates being sympathetic. Amused, maybe, but not sympathetic.

Besides, he spent a lot of his free time in the library anyway, reading everything and nothing. He didn’t study too much, just walked through the shelves, found something that looked appealing, and read some of it until he finished it or got bored. Some, he barely read fifty pages of; one, last year, he had carried around for two months, reading it once and then going back and forth through it, reading and rereading favorite bits and pieces. Having a legitimate excuse to spend a lot of time in the library and indulge in this habit without the guilt of thinking that he shouldn’t re-shelve them for fear of making a mistake but wanting to so he didn’t make someone else have to work sounded like a good thing to him.

At the sign-up sheet, he had a few seconds where he doubted himself and wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but then he saw that an actual first year had signed up, and that assistants were getting outnumbered by monitors. There was no way monitor-ship was going to work for a second year, though, and with Quidditch being…Quidditch and studies, he didn’t know just how much time and energy he had anyway. He just had to try to end up with friendlies (Daniel and Samantha) if monitors had to work at the times assistants did and - he thought bleakly as he signed up - hope that, if it didn't work out, that Renee didn't push one of the big shelves over on him the day before Aladren's first match and say it was an accident.

Russell Layne, 2nd year, library assistant

16 Russell Layne Signing up. 183 Russell Layne 0 5