Taking the plunge. on Library

Librarian Amelle Nicchi

April 30, 2016 10:20 PM

Library Helper Signup. by Librarian Amelle Nicchi

Amelle was exhausted. She had spent the entire day in the library greeting students who wanted to spend the afternoon there instead of in Cascade Hall or greeting Aladrens as they passed to head to their dormitory. That meant, she was up early, completed her prayers, made sure the final touches to bring life back into the library was complete and then sit around for about six hours smiling at everyone who looked her way.

And then there was the feast. At least Nathan had kept her company, so that was nice and she was able to learn a little bit more about him. She really ought to reach out to her fellow coworkers more instead of staying with her regular crew. But now she was back in the library. It was after curfew, so everyone ought to be back in their rooms and most likely in bed after a long journey, but just in case they weren’t or someone fell asleep in the stacks, Amelle did a couple of rounds to check all the little nooks and crannies of the library to make sure no one was still there.

Finding the place empty, Amelle did the last thing on her ‘To Do’ list by posting the usual sign that any book lover probably looked forward to every year.

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 (if the numbers allow for this).

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 can only apply for this role, but all other years are also able to 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:

Signing up. by Gia Donovan

Count me in again. by Jack Spencer

Can I join too? by Killian Everett

Still here by Clark Dill

Taking the plunge. by John Umland

Starting young and signing up. by Farrah Welsh

Climbing ranks. by Emilia-Louise Scott

Signing up by Chaslyn Brockert

Me too! by Theresa Whittaker

sign ups closed (nm) by Librarian Nicchi

6 Librarian Amelle Nicchi Library Helper Signup. 32 Librarian Amelle Nicchi 1 5

Gia Donovan

May 04, 2016 6:10 PM

Signing up. by Gia Donovan

Jax had let Gia know the first day of classes that the Library Sign Up sheet had been posted. She just loved being able to help out and get involved in things. Part of her reasons was because she felt like she had to. If everyone liked her and she was helpful to the school, maybe they wouldn’t be too upset over the fact that her brother was a Werewolf and then wouldn’t run them out of the school should this fact be made known. The other part was because she truly did enjoy it and liked working with people and being a part of things. She sometimes thought that her need to be included stemmed from the fact that her brother hated being included and didn’t like it when she was.

She stood in front of the sign up sheet deciding which one she wanted to do. She had been an Assistant for two whole years now. She figured that most of the fourth years would already be putting themselves down for Monitors and she kind of felt like she had enough experience with it to be herself down too. But, she was also a little worried that there wouldn’t be enough Beginners signing up to fulfil the Assisting positions.

Deciding to think for herself and worry about the logistics later, Gia pulled out her self-inking quill and placed her name down.

Gia Donovan, Fourth year, Library Monitor
Feeling satisfied with herself, Gia put her quill away and left the library to head to class.

6 Gia Donovan Signing up. 308 Gia Donovan 0 5

Jack Spencer

May 07, 2016 4:51 PM

Count me in again. by Jack Spencer

Science Club, Book Club, classes, Quidditch and library work had filled Jack's schedule very quickly. He wasn't opposed to it - in fact, he enjoyed being busy - but it did hinder his social life quite a lot. During the summer he had tried to decide what he wanted to drop. His courses and Quidditch were unchangeable, which left his other extra-curriculers open to question. Jack had eventually decided to let go of Book Club and continue to volunteer in the library. He enjoyed being a leader in one of his favourite places on campus.

Jack also liked their librarian. She was one of the more social ones of the staff and much less intimidating than Headmaster Brockert. Being around the books in any case made him feel happy and, during his angsty teenage moments, calmed his nerves as he perused through the shelves reading something fun and intellectually stimulating. Even if Adam called him a nerd for it, Jack didn't care. He was an Aladren.

Once the sign-up sheet went up, Jack stopped to fill it out before going to Cascade Hall for breakfast. One of his peers had already signed up, a witch named Gia, and Jack made it a goal to chat more with his fellow year-mates.

Jack Spencer, fourth year, Library Monitor

40 Jack Spencer Count me in again. 299 Jack Spencer 0 5

Killian Everett

May 09, 2016 10:16 AM

Can I join too? by Killian Everett

When it came to academics, Killian would be the first to admit that it wasn’t his favorite thing. He hated reading boring text books, typing up boring reports, figuring out boring math problems. Pretty much, the whole schooling experience for him thus far had been mostly a bore.

It was perhaps one of the major reasons he’d been excited when he learned about magic school. How could spells, potions, and flying ever be boring? Then again, that was before he’d learned about their appalling lack of technology. His hand was still aching from trying to get the stupid feather pen to do more than spurt blots of ink on to the parchment, not to mention the blotches of black on his skin he still needed to scrub off. Mastering the evil feather was an ongoing project, but at least he was able to carve out words now instead of a dot, dot, dash of splatters.

While he hated studying, there was one exception. Perhaps not an exception, but more a place. His mom always volunteered her time at the local libraries, and brought him along. As much as he didn’t care for reading or doing homework assignments, he’d long ago learned how soothing it could be to walk along the stacks and tidy them up.

Killian felt satisfied whenever he cleared a cart, making sure each book found its place tucked in among its brothers and sister. That, and he’d always loved the smell of the library. It always felt almost heavy with the knowledge it held, but not imposing. More like a heavy quilt instead of a load of bricks.

So when he spotted the signup sheet looking for Library Assistants, he didn’t hesitate to sign up.

Killian Everett – Library Assistant

0 Killian Everett Can I join too? 354 Killian Everett 0 5

Clark Dill

May 09, 2016 9:20 PM

Still here by Clark Dill

Clark stopped by the library board after signing up for Quidditch (it was on the way, seeing as Aladren's common room was off the library itself) and was pleased to see that the library helper sheet was already up this year. He hadn't bother putting his quill away after the Quidditch sheet in hopes that it would be, and was secretly glad he hadn't jinxed it.

There was no question about whether or not he'd help out again. Working in the library was one of his favorite parts of Sonora and he'd been doing it for as long as he'd had the option to do so. He figured he probably even had a shot at Head Monitor this year, now that he was an Advanced student, but he wouldn't be heart-broken if he didn't get it. He loved the library, but he already had two badges on his robes. He could share.

Clark Dill, 6th Year, Monitor

After adding his name, he put the quill away in his robe (he hadn't brought his backpack along this morning because he figured he'd need to go back to his room to return his broom anyway) and continued on to the gardens for his morning fly. Living in the muggle suburbs made it hard to practice over the summer and he had to get back in top form before Aladren's first game at the latest, and ideally before their try-outs though that was going to be a stretch.

1 Clark Dill Still here 277 Clark Dill 0 5

John Umland

May 11, 2016 7:07 PM

Taking the plunge. by John Umland

From his first day at Sonora, the library had been one of John's favorite places on campus to be. Back then, it had just been the bit of the place which helped the most with the homesickness he'd been doing everything in his power to pretend he didn't have - Sonora's library was nothing like the library his mother worked at and he had until that point spent most of his free time in in Calgary, but it was a library and therefore Good nearly by definition. Since then, it had joined the ranks of places where he was comfortable on its own merits.

Accordingly, seeing the worker sign-up sheet was yet another improvement to his first morning back at school. John looked at his bag, then decided he was too impatient to put it down and go through it again. Instead, he took the tiny pen off the cover strap of the notebook in his left pocket and used that, a little awkwardly because his hands were no longer small enough to handle the little pen as comfortably as they once had, to sign himself as John Umland, 5th, and then, for the first time, Monitor.

It felt, no matter how confident he was that it was time, incredibly weird to finally volunteer for monitorship, but he felt better about it once it was on the paper. John the Library Monitor. It had…well, it didn’t have a conspicuous lack of ring to it, anyway. One of the good things about the name ‘John’ was that it went uncommonly well with all sorts of things and poorly with almost none. 'King' was the major exception, and John had never reckoned he was going to end up one of those. Satisfied, he put his pen back and resumed his journey to the dining hall.

16 John Umland Taking the plunge. 285 John Umland 0 5

Farrah Welsh

May 12, 2016 8:53 PM

Starting young and signing up. by Farrah Welsh

Farrah was still getting used to the school, but the one thing that she was finding she thoroughly enjoyed was the library. She was so pleased that she was able to walk through it every morning and evening to go to what was supposed to be a second home to her, but she had yet to really feel comfortable in her dormitory. At least she had met a couple of nice people here even if they weren’t in the same house as her, at least she could find someone to sit next to in class.

She paused in front of the Library Helper signups for probably the hundredth time since she first saw it. Farrah wasn’t sure if she ought to sign up for it or not. If her roommates saw her name, would they make fun of her for it? They had also made Aladren so there must have been some studious part of them that had them sorted here, but Farah didn’t think it was something they necessarily admitted to. It was possible that she was thinking too negatively about her roommates, it was something she was trying not to do, but Farrah felt like an outsider most of her life around girls like them (or how she perceived them to be) so it was quite difficult for her to let go of that negative feeling.

However, her feeling for the library was outweighing that of her roommates. She loved books. She loved learning. She might not be open about it, but the awe she felt each and every time she was in vast room was enough for her to admit it to herself. Plus, if she were joining this, she might be able to meet other students who equally enjoyed their time with books. She already saw Killian’s name on the sign up, it would be extra nice if they were able to work together.

Pulling out her pencil (Farrah had taken to using pencils for her notes and quills for school assignments) and jotted her name down. Farrah Welsh, First Year, Library Assistant. Feeling remarkably better for finally making such a decision, Farrah returned her pencil to her bag and wandered through the library for an empty table to sit at until curfew.

6 Farrah Welsh Starting young and signing up. 344 Farrah Welsh 0 5

Emilia-Louise Scott

May 13, 2016 2:25 PM

Climbing ranks. by Emilia-Louise Scott

In her devotion to organising her new Fashion Club, signing up for library responsibilities hadn’t been at the very top of Emmy-Lou’s priorities. That wasn’t to say she had forgotten about it, however, and on a trip to the library to stock up on fashion books (for inspiration, not because she lacked knowledge in this department, obviously) she made sure to look out for Librarian Nicchi’s sign-up sheet.

Upon spotting the notice and approaching it, she remembered with delight that she was now old enough to apply for the position of Library Monitor. Being an Intermediate student was really quite brilliant. The only real downside was being the younger year in class again but Emmy could live with that. She had rather enjoyed being an older student last term and being that significant step ahead of the firsties so she could share her knowledge to help others. Emmy much preferred being the helper to the helped.

The young blonde drew an unnaturally coloured pink quill out of her bag, stooping to pick up a lurid green ball of thread that had fallen out in the process and then inking her name onto the sheet, dotting her ‘i’s with small hearts to add a personal touch (because normal was boring).

Emilia-Louise Scott, Third Year, Library Monitor

Emmy had always preferred the idea of this position to that of Library Assistant, which she had had no choice but to be previously. Not that she had disliked being an Assistant but it had to be said Library Monitors were more important and got way cooler duties because of that. She was already thinking about her chances of becoming a Head Monitor when she was older. Her father had always told her there was nothing wrong with ambition, not that the third year ever listened to him of course.

The Aladren scanned down the list of names already signed up, smiling at a couple of new names (first years) and pulling a face at one familiar name. She had expected to see another name that did more than just cause her to pull a rude face but so far that person had yet to add her scrawl to the list. Emmy returned her quill to her schoolbag, gave a conclusive flick of her long hair and headed off to the Aladren common room.

8 Emilia-Louise Scott Climbing ranks. 313 Emilia-Louise Scott 0 5

Chaslyn Brockert

May 13, 2016 7:13 PM

Signing up by Chaslyn Brockert

Last year, despite being awarded prefect, Chaslyn had disappointed her mother terribly. She had tried so hard to do everything perfectly, despite the strain it was putting on her to attend to even the most basic of needs like eating and sleeping. She'd barely done the latter, partially due to needing more time for all her activities including studying for CATS and partially due to anxiety over how Mother would react if Chaslyn let her down in some way. Same with eating, sometimes she was awfully hungry but others her stomach was just full of butterflies and she never ever could sit down and just have a meal, she had to study while she was eating and sneak snacks up to her room with her to eat in the middle of the night. Plus, when Chaslyn ate meals in the Hall, she had to make sure to eat like a lady, which meant not getting in as much food because she couldn't eat as quickly.

As usual, the Crotalus had done everything possible that she could last year, every single activity minus Quidditch and Science Club, the latter of which was a Muggle thing apparently, even though other purebloods were in it. Mother naturally did not approve of anything Muggle.

Of course, it hadn't been enough. Everyone else, all her cousins and her sister and aunts and uncles and grandparents and brother-in-law and father thought it was too much, but it wasn't enough. It never was. Especially with how her Challenge team had placed. They'd beaten Tristan and Kira and another team but it wasn't first and it was still a failure.

And this year Chaslyn had to do everything all over again and she had to do more. More to make up for it. More just because she needed to do more. There was always more. Mother was on her to start a club. Because it was something Chaslyn should have done a long time ago and because it might help her get Head Girl.

One of the activities she was supposed to sign up for was helping in the library. It was there, and therefore, the sixth year had to join it. As soon as she spotted the notice,she went over to sign up, her face falling as she looked it over. First of all, there were already people signed up, which meant the notice must have been posted a few days ago. She had failed to see it and if she failed to see the sign-ups right away, maybe she'd fail to see something else entirely. That would be a disaster! How was she going to make it through the year if she was messing up already?

Secondly, it seemed pretty much all but the two Beginner students wanted to be a Monitor. Chaslyn needed that position and knew full well that not everyone would get it. She'd done it every single year and was, along with Clark, the oldest person signing up so far, but what if Ms Nicchi went ahead and picked one of them over her anyway?

Then there were the Head Monitor positions. That was the highest position and so Chaslyn really needed to get picked for it. What if one of the seventh years-who had never signed up before-signed up now and were given it because they were older? What if she made Monitor but was passed over for Head Monitor if Lena signed up again? After last summer, she didn't want to see what would happen if she failed to achieve the very best there was available.

She reached into her bag to get a quill, her hands briefly closing around one bottle, than the other, before fishing it out. Those little bottles, those little vials were going to have to get her through again. Those two potions were ones that barely even required effort to make anymore. Chaslyn could make them in her sleep, if she ever had the chance to sleep.

With shaky hands, the Crotalus placed her name on the list.

Chaslyn Brockert, sixth year, Monitor

11 Chaslyn Brockert Signing up 281 Chaslyn Brockert 0 5

Theresa Whittaker

May 14, 2016 1:48 PM

Me too! by Theresa Whittaker

Tess had considered signing up to help out in the library last year, but it was only once it was too late that she’d realised she actually did want to do so. Therefore she was determined to get her name down to be a library assistant this year, especially as she generally had more plans to get involved in Sonora life. Being a library assistant had been first on her list, and now she was signed up to that she would start finding out which of the many clubs were starting this year. She’d very briefly considered Quidditch, but didn’t have that much experience on a broom. Perhaps she’d get better at flying this year, and potentially consider Quidditch in the future.

Whilst not an Aladren, Tess was fairly academic. Her parents, both involved in education (although at completely different ends of the age spectrum), had encouraged her academically, and so she always took her studies reasonably seriously. As such, Tess appreciated the fact that Sonora had such a great library, and she was eager to help maintain it.

Furthermore, she actually had some experience in sorting books. When she was younger, she’d often earn a bit of pocket money by ordering and putting away her father’s many academic books, which often ended up in random piles around the house when he was in the middle of some research project. True, she hadn't really spent that much of her time helping her father, but it was at least a start!

Theresa Whittaker, 2nd Year, Library Assistant

9 Theresa Whittaker Me too! 338 Theresa Whittaker 0 5