Let's take a short interlude here and take a step back form the story of Shelver Explorer. I believe that in order to fully understand what goes on inside a library you must understand the people who work in it. They shape an in turn and shaped by the microcosmic forces which manifest themselves in the structure, ambience, clientelle and catalogue within the library. There are a umber of different types of people who use and work in the library, and this story attempts to highlight a few of those types, albeit extreme examples. And so without further ado, here are some brief character biographies for three of the staff of this fictional library.
JAY
Jay (18) is a new shelver at the unnamed fictional library and also the story's protagonist. He tells the story of his adventures in his new and exciting workplace in diary format for one basic reason - he is a natural storyteller. He is at his best when he is engaging in narrative dialogue. This causes him some conflict as his other major passion in life - software engineering - is the complete opposite in that it doesn't allow him to express his talents in narration.
Jay is over the moon when he is finally accepted to come to work in a library. He begins working as a shelver, the owest link in the food chain, and has dreams of ascending to the position of head librarian, a position which he perceives to be the pinnacle of his career. However, as he begins to find out what working in a library is really like he is somewhat taken aback, causing him to doubt his prior intentions. He finds himself falling into the role of observer as he passively watches the events wthin the library unfurl around him. For the moment, though, he is content to sit back and absorb as much as he can.
TALIA
Talia (21) is the Senior Shelver at the library, although as there are only two shelvers this title is fairly irrelevant. She has been working in the library for five years and has no intention of climbing the ranks. To her the library is a source of information on a myriad topics, her favourite being political science. She enjoys the prospects of coming across new books which will ultimatly help her in her studies. Talia researches voraciously any topics which inspire her so that she can give her educated opinion, which she does frequently whetehr the other person is
interested or not.
BOUDECIA
Boudecia (age unknown, no-one has dared to ask her) is the head librarian, a title she wields like an iron greatsword. She dislikes anything which she sees as inefficient, such as a disorganised desk or a slack shelver. To her the concept of such things is too impractical to imagine, thus it cannot exist in her world. She does not discriminate; everyone and everything is flawed in some way and must be corrected. Boudecia rarely hesitates, believing indecision to be a waste of time and will treat any problem like a Gordian Knot, striking it at its core.
***For the purpose of this story I have made the conscious effort to use only stock characters: characters who act in accordance with particular stereotyped behaviours. This not only makes for an interesting set of characters, but also protects me from being attacked by fellow staff members for ridiculing them. There are one or two charaters who originally resembled people I know, so I have endeavoured to differentiate fiction from the reality. Enjoy, and please don't sue.
-The author
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