Service (May, 2012) - Library Service - *The End*

Library Service has been a fun and rigorous service activity for me this year. Many feel that stacking books and arranging them properly is an easy task. However, my feeling is that such thoughts cannot be changed unless the people experience the activity themselves, i.e. you don't know until you do it yourself. It should be known to all that correctly organizing and arranging all the books in the Secondary Learning Resource Center (SLRC) is a team task requiring both focus as well as physical stamina.

This service program has been a fun and useful period during which me and my peers have contributed to the school community. This is a matter of global importance with positive ethical implications as a Library plays a key role in providing knowledge from all spheres to students as well as non-students in the community. Thus, the maintainance of a library, i.e. the role of a 'Guardian of the Library', is taken very seriously by me.

I have attended all activity sessions punctually and am very happy with the progress that our group made. As a co-leader this month, I have been able to take responsibility for completing specific tasks planned by me and my partner Humza, and thus, guide the group towards helping each other after completing their individual tasks. I also happily maintained the new school Library Service blog that I had created with the first OSC library gmail account. Thus, by undertaking new challenges and taking responsibility, I have planned and initiated the service sessions and have collaborated with my team. Also, with perseverance and commitment, I have developed new leadership skills such as rewarding hardwork, motivating team-spirit and most importantly, leading by example. I am also happy with the whole team as most students were present in the sessions and prepared to work.

I thank my team, Humza, and Mrs. Lockwood for wonderful service sessions this semester.

I hope to take all these useful skills and nice memories of 'Library Service' as I step into a new service activity next year.

Library Service - April, 2012

Library Service at OSC now has two new leaders, i.e. me and Humza. We have begun leading the group and will be in this position till the summer break (and hopefully next year). In the first session, we had a small introduction session which was followed by implementation of a new plan. It was decided that from now onwards, the newly returned books will be shelved by all collectively, and later, everyone will return to work on and maintain their assigned shelves (including us leaders). Thus, by leading by example, me and Humza explained this to everyone and started work.

Till now, the group has been working diligently, sometimes taking long breaks in between though, and has been maintaining the book shelves properly. We all have worked as a team and collaborated well. However, both me and Humza, were at times challenged to keep the group at work, and therefore we developed new skills of diplomatically handling such situations by planning the activities in a creative manner in order to keep everyone at task and hence managing to get the work done with a few breaks.

I have also created a new blog for the service with its own g-mail id, as the previous blog was controlled by the previous leaders' personal mail. Thus, http://libraryserviceatosc.blogspot.com/, i.e. the new blog, will be updated at regular intervals to keep the world updated about our accomplishments as guardians of the library.

Hope everything continues fine next month, i.e. the final month for this school year, as well. :)

Service - Library Service: Leadership time - coming soon!!! (March, 2012)

Its been another busy month in Library Service. However, it has been very useful and as well as interesting. By attending the service punctually and working commitedly, me and my "non-fiction" team partner Humza have been chosen to be the next leaders of the service group. I am really happy as leading a community service group is a great privilege and also a big responsibility. 

I had earlier blogged that:

"Library Service is an activity that enables us students to recognize the role of the Library in every student’s life. We, the Library Service members, act as the "Guardians of the Library" by keeping it organized for the convenience of all the Library users, including students, parents, teachers, as well as visitors (Ethical implications of my actions). I believe that this Service program is very crucial as it not only allows us to be a part of the group in charge of maintaining the library, but it also enables us to respect the purpose of the Library." 

  
(Thursday, September 15, 2011)

I feel that while planning activities and tasks for the team, and also when implementing them, this should be kept in mind as a memo. I am also excited as my partner Humza is a hard-worker who adds a motivating fun touch to the service environment.

Other than that, this months service continued as usual. All of us placed the returned books in their designated shelves and spent remaining time tidying and stacking unorganized books in the correct order (i.e. both numerical and alphabetical).

Me and Humza will be starting our leadership from next month. We will be supervised by Ms. Lockwood, and will be in charge of all tasks carried out by the students enrolling in this service. Initially we both will work on creating a detailed plans of tasks for each student. We will also keep the library service blog up to date about activities carried out in the service. Later, programmes such as awareness campaigns and fundraisers will also be planned.

I am looking forward to this new challenge next month!

Service - Library Service (January - February, 2012)

Library Service continued after the winter vacation with the same amount of thrill and enthusiasm about tidying the library and helping the community! The participants in the third quarter of the year supervised by the OSC Head Librarian Ms. Raina Lockwood are:

• Skylor Knoll (12.A) - CAS leader
• Charity Dowers (12.1M) - CAS leader
• Philipp Hofbauer (12.1A) - CAS Blog Manager
• Onkar Ashish (11.2LE)
• Satyanshu Sapra (11.2L)
• Humza Usmani (11.2L)
• Constantine Hempel (10.1R)
• Greta Rocchi (9.2S)
• Christiane Amare (8.2H)
• Tulika Khosla (8.1G)
• Alo Lenk-Walker (8.1G)
• Beda Bellugue O’Leary (7.2R)
• Sejuti Sarkar (8.1G) 

The hourly after school service session took place as usual on every Thursday. I attended all the sessions punctually and worked till the end with complete dedication. Lots of returned books had to be placed in the designated spots on the correct shelves. I worked with my "non-fiction" team members to complete this task. Later, we worked on properly arranging the books in disorganized and distorted stacks. 

I felt that the leaders had not allotted the number of workers for the respective fiction and non-fiction sections properly. As majority of the students in the service were MYP students, the small fiction area was much well organized and maintained. However, as only 4 people (including me) worked in the large non-fiction area, only a small share of the books were maintained regularly and stacked correctly.

Thus, I have suggested to the leaders that more children be moved to the "non-fiction" team in order to properly maintain the books by next month. I hope to see some new peers as a part of our team in March. 

I am also looking forward to more such busy library service sessions in March which are useful for the OSC community directly as well as indirectly!

"Service" - Library Service

Today's library service session was really unique and joyous for me. In the beginning, I returned all the newly returned books to their designated shelves. This took about 20 minutes as many books had been borrowed out last week for the "book week". Next, I started to reorganize some of the most untidy and disorganized shelves with my partners Humza and Onkar. After 5 minutes, Skyllor, the activity leader, and Mrs. Raina Lockwood, the activity supervisor, had a meeting with us. They offered me and Humza the position of Library Service leaders for next year. As Onkar will be leaving in the beginning of next year, he will be our co-leader temporarily. We all humbly accepted the new role. I believe that this will be a challenge that will help me to develop new leadership skills. I will be able to organize and initiate activities, plan fundraisers in collaboration with others to engage in issues of global importance, and increase my awareness about my own strengths and areas of growth. I am really happy that I have been nominated for the role of a leader next year with my partner Humza. I will surely observe our leaders and absorb their leadership skills for the rest of the year.

Also, as next week's session will be the final one before the Christmas vacation, a pizza party will be organized collaboratively and the success of this semester's library service will be celebrated.

Reflection:

I believe that this semester has been really enjoyable and successful. I have been able to adhere to my CAS goals for the year, as well as the goals for this semester. I have developed new skills and learnt about the functioning of the library, taken part in fundraising events for charity, and also worked dedicatedly and collaboratively.

I am looking forward to attending the last session of the semester next week, and also continuing this activity in the next semester.

"Service" - Library Service

It was a regular session at the Secondary library today. It began with returning the newly returned books to their designated shelves. After that, I spent time on rearranging some of the shelves which seemed to be untidy and disorganized. While rearranging the books, I realised that I had become more efficient and faster in properly ordering the books, and maybe my alphabets had become very strong too :)

The session was not really unique today. I hope that the next session will be more active in which more goals regarding maintaining the book shelves in order are accomplished!

"Service" - Fundraiser at the 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS'

An advertisement poster for the show!

The 'Battle of the Bands' and the purpose of the Library Service team to collect sufficient funds to help the Jaffna Public Library were both successful. I enjoyed the event as I was able to serve drinks to visitors during the show and at the same time interact with them. This enabled me to gain experience in serving drinks and hence developing a new skill. Also, I was able to collaborate with my team members during the programme, and hence, our group was well organized and systematic. In the end, our group was able to collect approximately Rs.12,000.

Overall, the fundraiser turned out to be quite successful. I feel that more fundraisers of such form should be organized in the future as they are helpful to the visitors who attend the show and as the funds are used for community service activities.

"Service" - Library Service

It was a very active session of service today. After properly returning the newly returned books to their designated places, a meeting was held regarding the library service fundraiser that will be held this Saturday. During the 'Battle of the Bands', we will be sponsoring soft drinks, juice and other such drinks. In today's session, the remaining time was spent planning the roles of each person in the event, the duty timings, as well as the whole budget of the 'project'. In the end, it was decided that I will contribute by providing ice for keeping the drinks cool and preserving them during the show. Also, I will be serving drinks with my peer Onkar from 9:00 p.m. onwards to till the end of the show. 

I am looking forward to this programme as it will be both entertaining as well as an activity for a good cause.

"Service" - Library Service

It was an interesting session of library service today. As there was no library service last weekend, there were many books to be placed back to their designated shelves. Hence, it took me and my group around 15 minutes to organize the books. Next, a meeting was held regarding the fundraising for the Jaffna Public Library. The previous idea about planning a movie night was cancelled after a analysis of the success of previously carried out movie nights. Hence, the new fundraising plan is to set up a drinks stall at the "Battle of the Bands" programme. This program is planned by the Cleft Palette service group in order to raise funds for operations of infants suffering with cleft palette. It is to be held on 26th of November 2011 in the auditorium of The Overseas School of Colombo. Also, It is estimated that more than 500 people will be attending this program in which many local as well as school bands will be performing. Hence, by providing drinks to the people at the show, we (the Library Service team), will be able to help another service group to be successful in accomplishing their good deed, while raising funds for the Jaffna Library as well.

I feel that this fundraiser is very important as it engages with an issue of global importance and carries positive ethical implications with it. The Jaffna Library was inaugurated in 1934. It became one of the most flourished libraries in the world, gaining recognition as one of the best libraries in South-East Asia. However, the Jaffna Library was burnt during the ethnic war in Sri Lanka in 1981, and restored slowly. Now, even though it is now completely renovated, the library requires some enhancement in its infrastructure. A library is an important institution in a society. Some quotes about the role of this institution presented in simple words but with deep morals are:

"A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life."
Henry Ward Beecher

"A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life."
Norman Cousins

Hence, the fundraising for this library is a very crucial for the growth of ideas in Jaffna.

I am now looking forward to this event on the 26th of December. Also, as the Book week (28th November -  2nd December) is approaching, it will be fun to be part of the team that organizes programs that promote reading and encourage the use of the library in the school community.

"Service" - Library Service!

Library Service continued as usual today. However, there was a large amount of work to be done. There were more than usual number of freshly returned books. As one of the "non-fiction" section team member was not present for the service today, there was more work to do. Hence, we started by placing the books in their proper places on the designated shelves. During this process, me and Humza noticed that the library looked very different today as all the shelves were disorganized and most of the non-fiction books were not stacked properly and were just lying on the shelves. Hence, we spent the remaining session properly arranging the books. I was surprised as there was no discussion about the movie night today! All the tasks that had to be completed by today were not addressed by the leaders and no meeting was held. However, as the movie has been decided and plan has been made, I am quite confident that the movie night preparations are on track with the schedule.

"Service" - Library Service continues

Library Service continued as usual today as everyone attended the session after the one week break. It was a usual session as everyone spent the whole time properly arranging the books. Today, I noticed that till now me and my "non-fiction" section team have been able to finish two major sections of our designated shelves. However, the surprising fact is that we have still not finished even half of the shelves that we have to arrange properly. I hope that we will move at a faster rate (keeping in mind that the "quality" of work is as important as its "quantity") from the next session so that we are able to complete most of the non-fiction book shelves by the end of November. Also, today there was some discussion regarding the fundraiser between the "non-fiction" section team (i.e. me, Onkar, and Humza - all Grade 11 students) and our activity leader Skylor. Skylor proposed that we should make advertisement posters for 'Rush Hour 2' (the movie to be shown) to be placed on the bulletin boards all over the school. Also, we will write a small advertisement article to be posted in the school newsletter and hand it to the Head Librarian Mrs. Raina Lockwood by next week.

"Service" - Library Service :)

It was a regular session at the SLRC today. I came early and arranged all the newly returned non-fiction books myself. After this, I used my mother tongue knowledge to create transcripts for the many Hindi books in the SLRC. This activity led to the end of the service session today! The time passed very quickly as I wrote the transcripts. However, towards the end, I was a part of a small discussion about the fundraiser. We planned to have a meeting in the next session about arranging the fundraiser movie event the week before or during the "book week". I am looking forward to the "book week" as it is the most significant time period in the year which focuses on the importance of books (from literature to fiction, non-fiction to biographies, comics to dictionaries) in one's life (especially a student's schooling years). Also, as this is the last Library Service session for the first quarter and also the last service time before the October break, I am really satisfied with my progress in Service!

"Service" - Library Service :)

It was a rigorous day today. It was time to arrange the "World Languages" shelves today. I was given the task to arrange the Korean, Japanese and Chinese books in the proper places. The books had to be categorized either as formal and informal, and then arrange by the numerical and alphabetical codes. It was really a new challenge for me as I had to develop a new skill of identifying the three languages and distinguishing between them. Arranging these books, I learnt that the Korean script was geometrical, the Japanese script had a lot of circular symbols with frequent dots, and the Chinese script was geometrical but it also had many "hyphen-like" designs in the alphabets. Hence, this experience was quite challenging for me (both mentally and physically) as it enabled me to increase my awareness of areas of global knowledge (as well as general knowledge). I also understood that this (the scripts of different countries and their link to the prevalent cultures) was one domain which I could broaden my knowledge in to become a "whole learner" who is aware about the whole world and can think independently using his knowledge to overcome challenges in different times of life.

"Service" - Library Service!

It was an interesting session of Service today. After spending around 10 minutes arranging the newly returned books to their designated shelves, I spent another 10 minutes using my mother tongue knowledge to create transcripts for the Hindi books in the SLRC. The remaining time was dedicated to a meeting session!

In the meeting, a discussion about setting up a fundraiser event for the program supported by the Library Service Service team was held. There was a braintroming event which included ideas such as arranging a bake sale, a book sale or a movie night. In the end, the decision to plan a movie night with a bake sale sometime (not decided yet) in the upcoming weeks was taken.

"Service" - Library Service

It has been three weeks for me in the ongoing Library Service program at The Overseas School of Colombo (OSC). The Library Service program is an hourly service program that takes place in the Secondary Learning Resource Center (SLRC) at OSC every Thursday. The aim of this activity is to maintain the library by arranging all the newly returned books on the shelves in a proper numerical as well as alphabetical order.

This is the first time I have taken part in Library Service. By now, I have learnt how to organize the books into the designated shelves in the minimal amount of time. Our activity is supervised by Ms. Raina Lockwood, the head librarian at The Overseas School of Colombo.This year's Library Service program is being headed by Skylor and Charity of Grade 12. They divided the service group into two teams. I am a part of the group which organizes the larger portion of the Library, i.e. the shelves with the Non-fiction books. 

Library Service is an activity that enables us students to recognize the role of the Library in every student’s life. We, the Library Service members, act as the "Guardians of the Library" by keeping it organized for the convenience of all the Library users, including students, parents, teachers, as well as visitors (Ethical implications of my actions). I believe that this Service program is very crucial as it not only allows us to be a part of the group in charge of maintaining the library, but it also enables us to respect the purpose of the Library.

In the library service program, I (with my other 2 peers) place the returned non-fiction books to their proper designated shelves. Then, we start organizing shelves one by one in the proper numerical and alphabetical order. There are many books that have been put in the wrong order and some that have put in the wrong shelf. I put them in the proper order, first using the numerical code and then using the alphabetical code. Also, during the process, I am able to find books that have torn or missing coded identification stickers. By the end, I am able to properly organize approximately 6 shelves. In this activity, the time goes by really quick and hence, I am always surprised.

It was fun to arrange the books in a proper order (Helps to revise one's alphabets)!

The "Fiction Team" organizes the books in the fiction area.

Humza, a part of my team which arranges the Non-fiction shelves, at work!!!

Onkar, another member of my team, JUST LOVES BOOKS :)

In the future, I hope to keep working in the same manner and helping my group in "advertising" and spreading awareness about the various programmes carried out by the Library in the school, such as the book week and other book sales.