Volunteering. on Library

Librarian Amelle Nicchi

August 10, 2014 2:37 PM

Help Wanted! by Librarian Amelle Nicchi

Amelle’s summer had been not as relaxing as she had hoped. She had gone back home to see her family and spend time with them. The entire time she was there, her parents were on her case about what she was doing with her life. Amelle had graduated with an associate’s degree, but that was not good enough for her parents. She agreed to take a couple of summer courses, which meant that she was stuck staying with her parents for the deration of the summer.

On top of those classes and the stress of her parents, Amelle was forced to go out on dates with men her parents found appropriate. This was not Amelle’s idea of fun. She hated dating. She found it degrading and, quite frankly, she was insulted that her parents felt she needed to be set up. In the end, she had met one decent guy with whom she would continue correspondence with, but otherwise, was not likely to continue seeing on a romantic level. This infuriated her parents, but it was too late for anything that they could do as the summer classes were over and Amelle was now back at her job at Sonora.

Amelle was wearing her curly black hair down for the first evening back at Sonora. Usually, her curls got the better of her and she would throw her hair into a ponytail. But the first evening she always attempted to make an effort. She even wore a little make up, something that she didn’t often do, but she was feeling like she ought to try to look older. This was her third year at the school and she still was not much older than the oldest student, but even her looks make her appear younger than she was. Amelle had yet to have any problems with the students, but she knew eventually there would be that one that would. The older and more authoritative she looked, the less likely this would be an issue.

Once the feast was over, Amelle made her way to the library. She had already made the signup sheet the night before. She was excited to be back in Sonora and away from her parents, so she was eager to place the sheet on the board for students to review and sign. This year, she decided to do things differently just to try it out. She hoped the students wouldn’t mind a little bit of change.
The sign read:

Students are encouraged to help in the library during the school year. There are two roles that are available and two coveted roles that will be awarded to specified individuals.

Library Monitors (Intermediate and Advance Students may apply for this role)

The Monitors help to check books in and out of the library, organize the books in the stacks, answer any questions that fellow students may have, and complete occasional errands that may be needed.

Library Assistants (Beginner Years may only apply for this role)

This role has fewer responsibilities than the Monitor. Their role consists of returning books to their rightful place in the stacks and assist the Library Monitor with whatever duties that need to be filled.

The two coveted roles that will be elected to the individuals by the Librarian are the Head Monitor roles.

The two students who are granted this title will have the first choice in their work schedules and be Lead in deciding what duties each Monitor and Assistant will have for that day (should they so choose to do so), as well as other duties that may come about that the Librarian feels they are the best choice for.

Please note that only two Advanced students will be elected as Head Monitors and it will be based on their experience, responsibilities, and relationship with others. The Librarian will make the announcement to who was chosen when the final work schedule is posted.

If you are interested in either of these roles, please sign your name and the role that you are requesting. Prior experience will be considered for the role of Monitor. For any questions, please see Librarian Nicchi for assistance.

OOC: This sign up will be posted for 2 weeks RL time. After this time, a ‘work schedule’ post will go up with a list of what everyone is doing.

Subthreads:

Library Assistant by Lena Westley

Volunteering. by Julian Umland

Joining in. by John Umland

I'm in! by Clark Dill

Duty by Melanie Lennox

Re: Help Wanted! by Keme RunningBear

Signing up by Willow Collins

Obligation by Chaslyn Brockert

Signing up. by Emery Kijewski-Jareau

Sign Ups Closed. (nm) by Librarian Amelle Nicchi

6 Librarian Amelle Nicchi Help Wanted! 32 Librarian Amelle Nicchi 1 5

Lena Westley

August 11, 2014 2:59 AM

Library Assistant by Lena Westley

There were three places Lena enjoyed most at Sonora- Labyrinth Gardens, the Aladren Commons after dark, and the library. All three places were usually bereft of people, and therefore quiet, and lent something extra to her time there that she couldn’t put her finger on, a certain je ne sais quoi. The thing the library held was something akin to the feeling she got when her grandfather and grandmother’s attention was solely spent on her while she learned either a new word, about an established philosophy, a phrase along with its meaning and origin, or other such pursuits. Though there were no elderly guardians nor did her reading material turn to virgin soil often, the feeling of learning something seemed to hang about and it was comforting.

Lena wasn't ready to visit the common room- even when she was a first year she felt there wasn’t enough room. When the new Aladrens laid siege to the bedroom and laid claim to certain areas in favor of, what seemed to Lena, identical spots, she felt entirely in the way. If then she had every right to be there and still felt uneasy, she’d feel even more in the way now that she wasn’t a first year. So instead she reacquainted herself with the library. The sign-up sheet for library helpers caught her eye, and she looked it over.

Lena, not quite obsessed with making things tidy and not quite hung up on putting things in order but very near to those two things, was already a library assistant at heart. She liked things being in a place that made sense, and she liked it especially when the placement was neatly executed. Signing her name, she thought her free time, even if she didn’t get a position, would be spent doing very similar things and so was not worried about having less of it.

7 Lena Westley Library Assistant 279 Lena Westley 0 5

Julian Umland

August 11, 2014 8:00 AM

Volunteering. by Julian Umland

Julian knew it was silly, that what had happened the year before had been a freak accident, but she hadn’t realized how tense her shoulders were on the first morning of school until they had relaxed at the sight of teachers at the breakfast table. She had had nightmares about being stranded again, this time with John to look after while he did everything possible to get himself killed, though she hadn’t told anyone about them. As far as she could tell, her mother had done nothing, between the troubles at the school and Julian meeting her biological mother after them, but worry about her for the past year, so the last thing she wanted to do was give Mom more cause for concern.

Instead, the school was still accessible, John seemed to be settling in well (Julian had been amazed to see him actually smiling, at least for a minute, at the Feast while talking to some other first year in his House; she had worried that he was going to take being separated from Mom even worse than Mom was going to take being separated from both of them), and she had a badge to write home about. A few reminders of her CATS tried to drag her back down, but Julian spent most of the first day feeling like she was walking on air, smiling at everyone who made anything remotely like eye contact with her as she went through her schedule.

At the end of the day, she went to the library to check out some books to start her homework with, spurred on by a fit of optimism and the desire to live up to her new role, and spotted the sign-up sheet for library helpers. Her eyebrows rose at the changes to the familiar announcement and she thanked all goodness that the previous year’s seventh years were gone. The competition for the Head Monitor roles might have been brutal, especially since it wasn't specified that it would be one boy and one girl and all the Aladrens would have then been pitted against each other. As it was, though, she wasn’t sure who would even try for them.

She wasn’t eligible, so she wrote down Julian Umland, 5th Year, Monitor on the list and then went to go get the books she had come in to look for. Adding another responsibility to her plate had already dulled the edge of her enthusiasm, but she was still going to try to get some work done anyway.

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John Umland

August 11, 2014 9:04 AM

Joining in. by John Umland

In some ways, the Sonora library had not surprised John at all. His older sister had written home with many loving descriptions of it while he was still at home, even sent a picture or two in her first year, and so he had known ahead of time that it was a fine space, with lots of comfortable seating, good views, tall, old-fashioned stacks made of real wood, and lots of old books. He had still needed to take a moment, as he did in all large libraries and cathedrals, to stand still in the middle and just appreciate the place, but it was very much like what Julian had described, and nothing he saw had really shocked him so far.

What had surprised him was what wasn’t there, the things which made it very unlike his home library, a smallish branch of the city system it only took him ten minutes to walk to from his house. There were no clicking keyboards or humming printers, no bright lights, and very little noise, which in some ways was the strangest part of all for him. He had all but grown up in a library which was beside an athletic field and which some patrons complained resembled a coffee shop, with old people reading newspapers and young people coming in all the time for the computers and always people talking to each other. This one, at least today, was almost silent by comparison, and since the design was nowhere near as open as that of his old library, there were stretches of his first proper exploration of his new library that he’d found himself out of eye- or earshot, as far as he could tell, of another living soul.

A month ago he would have killed for that. Today, though, less than a week since he had last been at his library, it was almost creepy and just made him homesick. More things than he had bargained for seemed to be doing that. It was with a harassed expression that he finally found his way to the front desk with a stack of books on topics covered in his first few classes balanced precariously in his arms, ready to try checking out here for the first time.

He looked around the front desk and put his books on it when he saw a paper on the wall. John always read things on walls, whether they were posters, papers, or graffiti, if he had time. They were almost always either informative or funny.

This one was informative. He bit his lip for a second when, after reading the information, he saw his sister’s name already on the list – what if someone thought he was just following Julian around? – but he wanted to do it. This would be a good way to meet people he might want to work with and to serve what was now his community, which Mom said was very important. Everyone was supposed to help keep things afloat; the way the students had done that last year after their teachers disappeared was one reason Mom had finally broken down and said Julian could come back. He would be wrong not to do his part somehow.

That thought was the one that settled it. He took out one of the Muggle pens he’d smuggled into his trunk – he wrote much better with his dip pen than with a ball point or a quill and therefore planned to use the dip pen for most of his writing, but it was too much hassle and mess to bother with for a list, especially since he didn’t think he could do a Scouring Charm yet and he knew from sad experience that ink was hard to clean up manually – and signed himself up as a first year assistant. Then he went back to the desk to check out his books and introduce himself to the librarian. He didn't know if she would let a first year stay on her list or not, it was always possible that he had missed something important while reading, but even if she didn't, he suspected they were going to see a lot of each other, so it only seemed polite to make his name and presence known while acknowledging hers.

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Clark Dill

August 11, 2014 4:41 PM

I'm in! by Clark Dill

Clark bounded through the library on the first morning of classes, never quite knocking into anything but seeming like he was a mere hair's breadth from colliding into book shelves, tables, and other people as he hurtled down the aisles between the Aladren Commonroom and the exit. As he neared the exit, though, the twelve year old slowed down enough to only give a slight thump as he used the wall where the bulletin board was posted the stop his forward moment.

He shot a cheerful grin and a greeting toward the librarian, and then pulled the same pen he'd just used for his Quidditch sign-up out of his bag as he spotted the library help sheet was up already, too.

He read through it quickly, and didn't waste any time before adding his name to the bottom. He loved libraries and had meant to sign up last year but with the craziness of all the professors trying to get everyone back up to speed on their coursework after the half-year of student teachers, he just hadn't quite ever gotten around to it. Besides, it was probably better to just be a patron for a year, to get acquainted with the place, before volunteering to be one of the helpers. Now he was acquainted and imagined he'd have a bit more free time, so his name joined the other on the list.

Clark Dill, 2nd Year, Assistant

As he was still a beginner, that was the only option available to him, but he imagined he wouldn't have ventured for a higher position yet anyway. He was acquainted with the library, yes, but he wasn't quite to the level where he could navigate it blindfolded yet, and he felt that should be a prerequisite for Monitor, never mind the new Head Monitor position.

Plus, he'd seen Lena's name there, too, so that was bonus.

This completed, he tucked his pen away for the second time that morning, and charged out of the library and down toward breakfast in the Cascade Hall. He wanted donuts to celebrate the new year!

1 Clark Dill I'm in! 277 Clark Dill 0 5

Melanie Lennox

August 18, 2014 4:17 PM

Duty by Melanie Lennox

Melanie's year was off to a terrific start. She was Head Girl, Book Club president-though she wasn't sure she'd do nearly as good of a job as Henny- and best of all, she was betrothed to a man she loved deeply, who was one of the two people in the world who meant most to her. The other person, of course, being Valerie, who hadn't had more than the sinus infection she usually got in the summer. The seventh year knew that her sister would never be as healthy as people normally were but she was better than she used to be.

Her newfound responsibilities weren't going to prevent her from being a Library Monitor either. She loved doing it. Melanie had always enjoyed reading. Of course, it was probably a good thing that she'd dropped Defense and COMC. If she was taking everything, she was certain that she'd have no time for anything at all and that wasn't at all sensible. Not when she had other things that she wanted to participate in. Of course, she obviously hadn't expected to get Head Girl. Melanie wasn't sure who she expected to get it when she thought about it, though there were certainly a few she knew wouldn't. Especially when they weren't on the ballot in the first place.

Of course, the seventh year also had to make sure her new title didn't go to her head. She didn't want to be like that, not ever. Having Carrie O'Malley as a classmate, she had seen what full blown egomania was like, and she certainly never wanted to be even remotely like that. In fact the Crotalus was someone who actually made her sister angry without even tormenting her personally. Valerie believed Carrie didn't appreciate what a wonderful big brother she had in Ryan. Melanie agreed-and hated the girl more for making her sister upset. Anger was not good for Valerie, especially in those days. Not to mention that the other seventh year was so narcissistic that she appeared rather delusional. In fact, she was kind of a joke and maybe if she hadn't treated her brother so horribly and made Valerie so upset, Melanie might pity her. However, she didn't. All she felt for the girl was hatred and disgust.

The Teppenpaw looked over the list. Apparently, things were going to be ran differently this year, with beginners only being able to be assistants while the monitors were supposed to be the intermediate and advanced students. There was also a new position of Head Monitor. Melanie gazed at the description of the position pensively. Should she? Would it look like she was trying too hard to show off?

However, when she looked at the rest of the list, she saw who had already signed up, she didn't feel she had much of a choice. They were all beginners, save for Julian Umland, who was an intermediate. Melanie was the only one so far who could . Nobody else was even eligible. In fact, come to think of it, she didn't know if any other advanced students would sign up. Certainly none of the sixth years had before, and she could only remember Brielle and Clara doing it a few times, not consistantly. Admittedly, with the graduation of last year's seventh year class, she had the most experience.

Melanie took a deep breath as she wrote her name on the list. Last year she never would have tried, knowing there would be enough competition but this year, so far, there was none.

Melanie Lennox, seventh year, Head Monitor

11 Melanie Lennox Duty 226 Melanie Lennox 0 5

Keme RunningBear

August 18, 2014 8:09 PM

Re: Help Wanted! by Keme RunningBear

What Keme had failed to do last year for himself, he planned to make up for this year. Because of the craziness that had occurred, Keme had not created a new club for one of his joys in life, nor had he really done much else in regards to his social life. He had been too busy keeping up with what his studies should have been, and what they became when the Staff returned. It had been a very confusing term and Keme was happy to find that this one had not followed suit.

Despite this term being his CATS term, Keme still wanted to do more. He did not have the badge for the Prefect position that had gone to his housemate, but that was not any reason to believe that people did not trust him to lead. For now, he would get back into the roles that he had already been a part of and should other clubs rise up, see if he would be interested in joining those as asll.

The first sign up that he came across was the library helper sheet. He had signed up before to do this. He found the tasks to be familiar and pleasant. Being and Aladren, the library was like a second home to him. Although he studied often in his dorm room, having no roommates himself, Keme also enjoyed spending time amongst the books. Deciding this was as good of any start to the year, he decided to sign up for a position.

Keme RunningBear, 5th year, Monitor

6 Keme RunningBear Re: Help Wanted! 249 Keme RunningBear 0 5

Willow Collins

August 21, 2014 3:47 PM

Signing up by Willow Collins

This summer had been one of progress. Not so much for Autumn, who was still in the hospital, but for Willow herself. Of course, it had started with screaming at her parents about the whole situation. Not so much about her sister and how the fifth year continued to believe she wasn't going to get better, she kind of didn't want to do that to her parents who still had hope. What she'd yelled about was that they didn't tell her anything, they were treating her like a baby and she was old enough to know about what was going on. Her mother had explained some of thing things that had happened to Autumn, which only confirmed what Willow already believed.

They'd also set her up with a therapist of her own-not that Willow was telling anyone that- and a group for siblings of people with eating disorders. She did well engaging with the former, unlike what her mother said about Autumn and one of the reasons she had yet to come home though it seemed like medical problems and a cycle of not eating at times were the main concerns, but Willow didn't like talking in the latter so much. Still, it was nice to know she wasn't alone, that it wasn't just her and Lily.

She'd even made a friend there, a boy named Brody, whom she was willing to talk to one on one. The Teppenpaw could talk to him about things that she couldn't even with Keme who was the closest thing she had to a friend here. Her family didn't want her sharing it with anyone at school, most people there wouldn't remember Autumn now, they would have still been pretty young when she graduated. The only person Willow could have talked about it with was Evan and he was gone now. Well, there was Portia, but she was rather silly and while not stupid, would not really understand. She honestly didn't view the fourth year as mature enough for this and while Willow had a right to know things, her cousin was less close to the situation. Even if her older sister had gobbled up any sort of book on the subject. The fifth year had never really wanted to hear those things from Nora either, who was too detached.

However, she was going to keep up with the idea of staying busy without over extending herself. Her therapist seemed to think it was a good one, though he was the one who'd warned her against doing too much and stressing herself out. Willow agreed, she didn't need to be an overachiever, trying to be perfect was what made Autumn so sick in the first place. Besides, she had her CATS this year, and she wanted to do well.

One of the things that she wanted to be involved with though was library helper. She planned to join book club too and maybe start Art Club up again. Willow was better organized than Evan was honestly. Not that that was saying much. Of course, she had decided not to paint, her sister painted and doing so made the fifth year kind of sad. She was opting to try ceramics instead.

She scanned the list. Okay, so Willow didn't qualify for Head Monitor. That was fine by her-and Keme had signed up too! She grinned. She would have signed up either way but working with the Aladren would be more fun.

The Teppenpaw wrote her name on the list.

Willow Collins, Fifth Year, Library Monitor

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Chaslyn Brockert

August 21, 2014 4:29 PM

Obligation by Chaslyn Brockert

She had to sign up again. She had to do everything but Quidditch. Mother was mad about Amity's CATS scores, which had not been straight Os, and Chaslyn had to make sure Mother didn't get angry with her too.Hearing how she'd yelled had made her feel sick to her stomach and start crying in front of her French tutor, who at the very least was sympathetic and tried to comfort her. He'd seemed rather embarrassed and uncomfortable himself.

Pleasing Mother meant helping in the library, joining Book Club, and any other club that popped up. Not to mention getting all Os, practicing the extra stuff she learned at home and the one thing that her older sister had actually gotten right, befriend the right people. Of course, there were more of those people in Amity's class than there were in her own, at least initially. In Chaslyn's year, there was basically Daphne, the Westleys, her distant cousin Oliver, and Ryan's step-brother Jake.

And neither Oliver was very friendly or nice. She really didn't want to interact with either one of them. Oliver Feguson had noticed Serena's...less than stellar Transfiguration abilities, and made fun of her for them. The Teppenpaw had looked like she was near tears, while Chaslyn was admittedly just glad it wasn't her . Never mind Oliver, Mother would be furious if she didn't do well.

Maybe though, there were first years that she could be friends with. That was Serena's suggestion. Of course, in the third year's case, she'd been lucky enough to bond with Arabella's future sister-in-law, Gemma. However, Effie Arbon's sister was a first year and Amity seemed to think Chaslyn should reach out to her, especially as the girl was in Crotalus. She was not opposed to the idea and just hoped she had enough time to do so.

She caught sight of something on the list that bothered her. The second year was only allowed to sign up for Assistant! Mother wouldn't like that at all . However, it was a rule and Chaslyn had to follow the rules whether they be Mother's or the school's. She didn't want to get in trouble with the Headmaster either. Being her father's cousin didn't make him any less frightening. Besides, she wanted to stay on the good side of all staff members.

The Crotalus placed her name on the sign-up sheet.

Chaslyn Brockert, second year, Assistant

11 Chaslyn Brockert Obligation 281 Chaslyn Brockert 0 5

Emery Kijewski-Jareau

August 24, 2014 7:32 PM

Signing up. by Emery Kijewski-Jareau

Emery knew that this was the year to start getting involved in things. He was already involved in the Book Club (well, so long as someone continued on with it now that Henrietta was gone), but he knew that he would have to get involved in more things if he wanted to have even a slim shot at the Prefect badge. Since Emery did not play Quidditch (his house seemed unhealthily obsessed with it in the past), his only other options were clubs and helping out in the Library. Since there weren’t many club posting out yet and the library was like his second home anyway, he felt that this was probably the easiest option for him to take. He had always thought about it in the past, but hadn’t wanted to look like he was trying to suck up to his mom. Last year had been too chaotic for him to even consider it. At least, this year he hoped no one would take notice of his name on the list.

He didn’t want to be the first person to sign up for a position, so he had waited until he had seen several names go up before deciding to include his own. He really wasn’t sure why it bothered him to be first on the list or really, what other people thought of him doing it. It was just one of his anxieties in life, he supposed. Just as he worried he wouldn’t make friends because of whom his mother was, he worried that he wouldn’t keep his friends because of his hobbies. Although Emrys couldn’t really judge him on his hobbies all things considered and Ava was too involved in her passion for Healing to take notice in anything that he did for it to really make a difference. Those were really his only friends, so he oughtn’t worry about any of this at all, but he did. He wanted to make the right impressions, he supposed.

He read over the list to see what everyone decided on. There were plenty of Beginners to pick up on the Assistants, but there were also quite a few who had signed up for Monitors too. He was the only fourth year to appear on the list, making his decision on which way to go even harder. He had never signed up before, so doing a year as Assistant wasn’t too terrible, but they were two years younger than him, so that felt weird.

Taking a self-inking quill from his book bag, Emery signed himself up to be a Helper. Hopefully, his choice wouldn’t be so strange considering he hadn’t really done much before with it.

Emery Kijewski, Fourth Year, Monitor

6 Emery Kijewski-Jareau Signing up. 259 Emery Kijewski-Jareau 0 5

Librarian Amelle Nicchi

August 24, 2014 9:44 PM

Sign Ups Closed. (nm) by Librarian Amelle Nicchi

6 Librarian Amelle Nicchi Sign Ups Closed. (nm) 32 Librarian Amelle Nicchi 0 5