americanwizarding: There is a well known and understood thaumaturgical principal taught to all stude
americanwizarding: There is a well known and understood thaumaturgical principal taught to all students of the Seven Schools of Sorcery in the first few weeks of their education: Scienta est Potentia. Potentia est Vis. Cave Bibliotheca. The words, approved by the Association of Magical Librarians (AML), are engraved on metal plaques and displayed prominently in the office of every school’s head librarian as a constant reminder to students and other seekers of knowledge that there are dangers to wandering the twisting paths between the shelves. Inconspicuous as they may seem, there is no such thing as a “safe” book. In a magical library, where arcane energies must be carefully grounded to prevent accidents, the hazard is a hundred times as great. Sometimes the only difference between a book of magic and a magical book, after all, is the person reading it, so the brave custodians of the stacks must be trained in more than just organization and bibliomancy. Taming wild text and patrolling the dark and hidden places in the shadows of the card catalog is not for the feint of heart or weak of will. It should not be a surprise, therefore, that amongst the most highly regulated and respected industries in the AWC is the administration of public-lending libraries for the magical population. While every Region is considered capable of managing its own police-force and cadre of public services, the management of the magical libraries of the AWC is held firmly in the hands of the highly trained professionals of the AML, a sub-department of the Department of Magical Research and Development (MRD). The AML is responsible for training new librarians and overseeing the work of those currently at work in the 14 branches currently open to the wider public, the seven departments currently at work in the seven schools, and the “Forbidden Stacks” kept safe by the Smithsonian Institute for Magical Knowledge (SIMK). The training each AML certified librarian undergoes would rival that undertaken by agents of AB-DENs or the DSO, and it is not uncommon for employees of the AML to “retire” to either of these agencies after several decades of service “between the shelves.” Every AML librarian is trained to handle the variety of problems that might crop up in a magical library, and undergo extensive self-defense and survival training during their four-month boot camp. The Association requires that all school librarians keep their eyes open for potential recruits who show the prerequisite level-headedness, quick-thinking, and love of books necessary in new librarian, and given the higher-than-expected mortality and disability rate, they are almost always hiring. Most of the AWC’s libraries can be found hidden within their more venerable Muggle counterparts, where the AML agents work alongside (and sometimes slightly behind) their mundane counterparts…not that one would know. One of the more common breaches of the Statute in the AWC occurs when a witch or wizard mistakes a Muggle librarian for an AML veteran, and requests some obscure or magical text. The mistake is, apparently, an easy one to make, and the AML has yet to find a sure-fire way to prevent such mistakes entirely. -- source link
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