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 Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 6:09 pm
The library had received a large donation of reference materials a few days ago, and Anthony had not yet gotten around to sorting through it all. He had been rather distracted, what with monster attacks and other various things going on in the library, and they had just fallen to the bottom of his list. It was difficult to think about acquisitions, for example, when the entire back reference section was shoved over and fell on top of a poor student.
So he was working on it now, since the day was fairly slow and no one had a pressing need for him to show them where books were, or anything like that. Sitting at the front desk, he had a cart pulled up, laden with the books, and was slowly putting them into the system, giving them barcodes, and assigning them call numbers. Tedious work, but he needed to pay attention lest he put in a number wrong and mess up check our procedures for someone later.
And that was the last thing he wanted. He knew how to fix any mistakes, sure, but he had nearly eleven years of experience and practically ran the place. If a messed up barcode came up for a student worker they would have no idea what to do with it. Of course, the easy solution would to just include that in the basic training each student went through... but it was so rare and complicated that he didn't want to scare them off by giving them a crash course in it.
Sighing, he debated that while he worked, though he was doing his best not to let anything slip by. There were a lot of books, and most of the information was nearly the same. He could feel his eyes glossing over slightly from the repetition.
At least it was a good distraction, and was keeping him busy on a slow day.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 6:48 pm
A rare event had occurred: Devi Gellner was excited. She wasn't excited about most things, but she had recently become inspired to produce an amateur slasher film. She needed to do some research first, however. While she could tell you everything about slasher films without a bat of an eye, and most things related to cinema - she knew jack s**t when it came to editing, and could use a general guide on filmmaking. So she found herself at the library, a place she rarely stepped foot in, hoping to find some assistance there.
"Excuse me," Devi said to the man at the counter, so quietly spoken she was nearly inaudible. "Can you help me find something?"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:20 pm
Tony continued working for a moment after the initial 'excuse me', only looking up when the voice went on and he was sure he had heard something. He looked around, then his eyes fell on the girl at the counter.
"Oh!" he fumbled with his book and put it back on the cart, sitting up in the chair he had been slouching in to look a bit more professional. Adjusting his name tag, he offered her a warm smile in greeting and stood. He thought it was polite to be standing when serving patrons.
"What do you need help with?" he asked, easily slipping from the menial labor to the part of his job he liked a bit more. Helping people. He thought interacting with people was always interesting, because no one asked for the exact same book, in the exact same way.
He turned the computer a bit, clearing out the screen he was working in so he could bring up the search screen.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:26 pm
"I want to make a movie," Devi said, a little more loudly than before, and a little more loudly than she needed to be. After pausing for a moment or two, she realized she probably needed to be more specific with what she was looking for. "Are there any books about filmmaking or editing? A guide for beginning filmmakers would be superb. Especially ones related to horror movies. Not about horror movies themselves, but about how to make one?"
"I'm making a slasher film," she said proudly. She with such pride she might as well have struck a pose with the statement, but she didn't - someone might see and laugh at her!
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:32 pm
"A movie?" Tony tried not to react to how she had slightly over estimated her projection, just keeping his smile and waiting patiently for her to continue. It wasn't something he was unfamiliar with, and he spoke in his normal voice in an effort to put her at ease.
Nodding vigorously, he typed in a couple key words and a good sized list came up on the screen, "we have lots of books on filmmaking. You'll find most of them in the same section, which is nice, though it's a little... complicated getting around here. If you need any help finding something, I can always show you."
People got lost. A lot.
"Slasher... huh," he said, familiar enough with films to know the genre. He hadn't expected it out of her, but maybe he was breaking the first rule of library-dom. Not judging a book by its cover. He grinned, "That'll be fun, I'm sure. Alright, I'll narrow the search a bit..." he did so on the computer, then took a piece of paper and wrote a couple call numbers down. They started with PN, and then were followed by a few numbers and more letters. He also wrote down one that started with TR, which was in a different section.
He slid the paper to her, watching for her reaction.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:41 pm
She looked at the paper. Then back at him. She looked back at the paper. Then back at him again. Devi was not happy. She felt like an idiot not being able to understand this code, and she hated feeling like an idiot.
"Am I supposed to understand this?" she snapped. She had a pretty short-temper, and had to restrain herself from having a hissy fit in the library because the mean old librarian helped her in the way he was supposed to, and not the way she wanted him to help. Realizing this, she tried to calm herself down, and started backpedalling. "I'm sorry, I-I don't understand this. Can you help me?"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:46 pm
Tony saw her shift in attitude and steeled himself. He half imagined her leaping across the desk at him, but he had been having a lot of strange dreams, so his paranoia and imagination were having some fanciful fun together it seemed. He watched her, tense.
"I... well," he stammered, realizing the question was rhetorical a little too late, "you are supposed to y-yes, but ah... oh, no, it's okay. I understand. The Library of Congress system is a bit... odd..." He offered her a reassuring smile.
Turning from the desk, he motioned for a student worker to come back and take over the desk while he went to show her where the books were. "Stairs or elevator?" he asked, "they're on the third floor."
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:57 pm
Having had little sleep in the past few days, Devi was in no mood to take the stairs.
"Elevator, please," she said. She realized her temper had made him uncomfortable. She decided that she will have to write about her desire to further apologize to him in her diary. "Don't libraries usually use that Dewey Decimal System or something?" The only times Devi has ever been to the library were to meet for studying, and that was only a couple of times in her freshman year. She never actually felt the need to look for anything, she felt the internet helped her find whatever she needed usually. Lately, however, the internet has been more of a distraction and less of a tool for research.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 8:09 pm
"Elevator it is," Tony replied, feeling relieved. He was in no mood for the stairs, either. Tired from his day and his lack of sleep as of late. He was aware that a few people who came up to the desk had complained about nightmares or rough nights, as well, and wondered why somethings just seemed to happen in clumps.
"They usually do," he said, as he led the way to the elevator. He hit the button and the doors opened quickly enough, the elevator thankfully not up at one of the other floors. Once they were inside he pressed the button for the third floor and continued.
"But I find this system a bit more efficient. A bit more complicated, but I think it's better organized and, once one gets over the initial confusion about the call numbers, a better way to conduct research."
The bell dinged and they were on the third floor, which meant he could lead the way to the first of the books. At least the PN section was among the front rows. TR was in the back.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 8:29 pm
"Wouldn't it just be easier to have it organized the way everyone else knows?" she asked. She didn't mean to sound rude, but she found using a different system than other places to be stupid. She wasn't sure about much library stuff and hadn't really ever thought about what it'd be like to work in a library. She imagined probably would be boring, but she found the whole idea of libraries boring. "Do you like being a librarian?"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:06 pm
Tony laughed at that, nodding his head slowly. He knew that suggestion well, and if it didn't mean reshelving hundreds, if not thousands of books, he might have looked into it more seriously. As it was, he had faith in the Library of Congress method. Or maybe he was so biased toward it now he just couldn't back down.
Librarian pride.
"You're probably right, but I think those that use the library regularly will agree with me," he didn't offer any names for her to check with, of course. One, because he didn't think she really cared, and two, because he didn't want to be proven wrong. Walking her to the PN section, he scanned the call numbers for the section they would find the 'how to' books for movie making.
"I adore my job," he said honestly, "I don't think I could have found a more perfect match for myself. Of course, if you had seen me when I was your age you would be very surprised to find me in a library now. Ah well, that's life." He was babbling, but he tended to let his thoughts fall out of his head while he was focusing on other things.
"Ah, here we are," he said, gesturing to the book. "There are a couple here you might want to look at. The horror, specifically, would be in the next section, in the T's."
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:18 pm
"Thank y--," Devi started. There were a lot of books. She knew it would be annoying to ask him to help her find exactly which book, so she tried to take the initiative. Nervously approaching the shelf, she examined all the books, scanning through all the boring titles that were probably filled with either entirely useful or entirely useless information until a bright yellow book caught her eye. She pulled it out and showed him the book.
"Is this good?" she asked, showing him the title, Filmmaking Movies for Dummies.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:37 pm
Tony took a step back, watching her. Not in a creepy, staring over her shoulder kind of way, but in just in case she needed any more help, he would hang around and offer it. She hadn't been too confident in the system, after all, so he wanted to be sure she was okay.
He looked at the book, smirking.
"It would be if you were a dummy, I suppose," he offered, then chewed on his lower lip, "I-I mean. Just because... it's title. Ah, I don't mean to imply... yes, it might be helpful. This series always lays things out in clear terms. It might be a good place to start, any way..."
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:47 pm
Devi looked back at the bookshelf without saying anything. She didn't want to seem stupid in front of him, so took the largest, fattest book she could find without even looking at the title. She showed it to him, trying to impress him. It was a copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, A Novelization of the Film Based on the Novel by J.R.R. Tolkein.
"Is this good?" she asked, thinking herself smart.
She probably should have looked at the title.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:50 pm
Tony blinked in surprise when she presented that book to him, reaching for it and politely taking it so he could look at the call number. It certainly wasn't supposed to be in this section, which was interesting. But he thought it funny that she had pulled it at random.
"That... isn't what you want at all," he laughed, trying to keep it down though. He cleared his throat, showing her the cover now so she could see what she had picked.
"Unless your slasher flick involves feminine elves and stocky dwarves?"
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