BS: I am grouching in the library

Subject: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: GUEST,Penny S. (In the local public library)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 07:37 AM

Computers in the library - a good thing (Except they don't subscribe to jstor, and I have just spent an irritating 40 minutes finding dead ends). Access to audio and video tapes, also. Diminution of book supplies, worrying.

But using a mobile phone next to people studying for over twenty minutes- whatever happened to SILENCE? I am going doolally...

Is it that I am old? Set in my ways? Should I be prepared to put up with it? Would I be a grouch to complain?

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 08:30 AM

The traditional art of grouching, a true folkway, is under threat and should be practised.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: gnomad
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 08:33 AM

Unacceptable in my book, but I know that I'm out of date. I would have a word with the staff: if it isn't against the rules (should be IMO) then you can't complain. If is is against the rules then it's time the staff woke up and enforced them.

Silence as a whole seems to me pretty much a lost cause, you have to get well away from the herd to stand even a slim chance, but you should be able to find quiet in a study area.

Oh, and NO, you wouldn't be a grouch so long as you are civil in your complaint.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: MikeL2
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 09:36 AM

hi

Silence is no longer encouraged in libraries.

In our town library we have all kinds of events mainly for small children under school age. Of course no person would expect them to be silent - they are children after all.

There are poetry reading classes going on and other groups doing of kinds of activities.

Then we have banks of computers where members have free use of the facilities including the Internet.

I am totally for all these but I don't expect and don't get silence.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 09:41 AM

Every Library ought to have quiet spaces for reading. In our Library cell phones are not allowed other than in the coffee room. Although children are not expected to be silent, they are expected to respect others..as they would in many other public places. There seems to me to be a need for quiet places and these ought to be respected.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: MikeL2
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 09:57 AM

hi HiLo

We don't have a separate room as such - we do have a screened off area but it doesn't reduce the noise.

I have to say that the children are all very well behaved and respectful and well supervised.

I don't know if we have a mobile phone rule but I have never seen anyone using them.

I have to say that I am in no way put out by the conditions in our library but these days I only go in to change books. I don't try to work there or do research there.

regards

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 10:06 AM

I guess it depends on the library. In our locale, one is adamant even about breathing to loudly, another is OK with a little conversation but asks that cell calls be taken outside. I was embarrassed one day, out in the hall at another library, to be asked to keep it down as I explained to someone about the use of the computer. I expect someone had complained. Quite reasonable, I felt. We had being going on a while as she was so excited about watching me use my laptop and wanted to know everything. So each seems top be different - like the people who work in them, and use them.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: MAG
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 11:06 AM

Most libraries have a policy on cell phones. Find out what yours is, and if they don't have one ask that it be considered.

My big gripe with libraries these days is that management seems to think they should be akin to the pop rack sdtuff at the drugstore.

Which is why I am now retired.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: beeliner
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 11:33 AM

I live in one of a pair of twin cities, and both cities' libraries have quiet rooms where silence is mandated and strictly enforced. That seems to me the best solution.

Obviously, anything approaching rowdiness shall not be tolerated anywhere in the library.

If signs are posted, 'Cell phone use in lobby only" or something similar, than that should be enforced.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 11:51 AM

Ya' know..........I know I make a lot of fart jokes around here, but this is the absolute truth. It may or may not be funny, but it is the truth.

I haven't been able to walk into a library in years without having to fart. Seriously, I can be just fine, walk through the door, and "instant gas." I spend more time in library bathrooms than I do the stacks! Same thing happens in bookstores and anywhere else that one needs to be quiet.

So maybe if the places were noisier I I wouldn't have this problem.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: gnu
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 12:19 PM

It's obvious, Spaw. I assume you read in the can? Sooo, as soon as you enter the libray and see all those books it triggers the Pavlovian responce you describe.

Do you grab sommat to read on your way to the library can?

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 01:10 PM

I work in what is probably a fairly noisy library, though we do have a couple of areas set aside for quiet study.

Thankfully, the reason our library is noisy is not because of farts.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: frogprince
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 02:20 PM

"What on earth is all the noise in here today? I came to the library to do a little research, and it sounds like the tuba section from a high school band practicing in here!"
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but this is the day of the week that Mr. Patterson usually comes in".

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:02 PM

The new Seattle Public Library, from which my wife just retired last month, has large areas in it, such as one they call "the family room," which is huge and open. It's a huge indoor atrium about eight or nine stories deep and it is very echoey. The same problem exists in many areas of the new library building, and I really wonder what the architect and those on the library board who approved the plans were thinking!

But the building is mind-bogglingly impressive both inside and out. And it has some really marvelous facilities such as meeting rooms available to the public, and if I recall correctly, there are some 500 computers available for public use. And the whole building is a wireless hotspot if you prefer to use your own laptop. AC plug-ins everywhere.

The whole building is echoey, but there is one floor given over to what they call the "reading room." Bright and airy—and any noise or disturbance is fairly quickly quelled.

Very modern building with some excellent features, but others that leave a lot to be desired.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: frogprince
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:13 PM

We saw it when we were there a couple of years ago, Don. I really did find it a striking, appealing modern design. Things happened to be pretty peaceful in there just then, and we didn't pick up on the acustic problems.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: gnu
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:36 PM

Don... "... I really wonder what the architect and those on the library board who approved the plans were thinking!"

8 to 12% of the final cost for the fee! Library... here the latest one I know of is a big addition to one of our hospitals (public facilities here... on the taxpayers' dime). It just opened, way over time and WAY over budget. Same deal... a huge atrium. Read, big waste of money and of space. Space that will have to be heated and cleaned (not easily or cheaply) forever.

Meanwhile, I have been waiting to see one specialist since July 13 and another since early fall. No money for health care, lots for architects and politicians.

Oh, BTW, when they built our new city hall, the library was moved to the old building. The existing library was sold... to an architect... gee, I wonder which one? Fookin crooks the lot.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:57 PM

I'd cover over our atrium if I could. It heats the place up too much in summer and does little for heat in winter. Same thLing for the foyer. Libraries are all too often built as monuments to the architect, not for use. Hopefully we'll have the suspend ceiling completed throughout the building by late Spring, and that will help cut down on the noise (and cost of lighting!) considerably.

As for the Internet usage, as we say, "What part of public don't you understand?" (I'm not being mean here, just that a PUBLIC library is a building for the public to use.

Oh, and I'd have a quiet area if the damned thing was designed like a warehouse AND I had the money to build such.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 05:34 PM

Got a friend whose sister works in library and always seems to be on duty when one particular wanker (literally) comes in to use the computers.

He accesses pictures or web sites that are not specifically pornographic, but something on them gets his rocks off and he masturbates in full view of everyone in the library.

I told the friend she should tell her sister to just go up to him, and say in a firm drill sergeant tone ...."Not on my watch, Twiddledick. Get out, unless you want to be here when the police arrive."

Mobile phones are disabled in our local library. Can't get service. There should be quiet areas set aside and rigorously protected, but of course this depends on the size and funding for the facility.

A simple smile at the offender and some comment like "I am not having too much success at this, do you know anything about.....?" Takes them away from the phone and puts them in your corner, so to speak. It is non-confrontational and yet distracts them from the activity that is annoying you. Failing that, grab the phone from them, throw it to Spaw on his way to the loo and ask him to flush it.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:04 PM

In the UK, Reference libraries (exclusively non fiction and/or local studies material) are usually areas for silent study. The normal, fiction/non-fiction/children's libraries tolerate a certain amount of noise but will shush people if they get too noisy, or ask them to leave. I still shush people in that 'librarian' tone of shush when they talk during choir rehearsal... old habits die hard!

Oh and Spaw - I know exactly what you mean... I spent many a happy Saturday cruising around the bookshelves in W H Smiths (Newsagent/bookstore/Stationers), letting one rip surreptitiously and looking sternly at the person next to me, wrinkling my nose and stepping away.... Ah... innocent fun!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Gurney
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:23 PM

Et Tu, Spawte?

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:24 PM

Just be glad that. . . .

CLICKY

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 07:11 PM

The most irritating user noise I have ever encountered in a library was when I was working on music manuscripts when there was a woman across the room whose laptop went BLEEP at every keystroke. And she was typing fast enough that I was getting BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP as an out-of-time percussion part to every tune I was trying to hear in my head. Being a Windows user, she didn't have a clue how to turn it off.

I tried to get her thrown out on the spot but the best I could do was embarrass her into never coming back (at least I never heard anyone do that again).

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 07:12 PM

Don, did you know that was filmed of me at work?

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 07:21 PM

She'd have more battery life if she turned off the noise on the keys.

I was writing a section for a library and among the gripes from the committee were the librarian stereotypes that are still floating around. Since there seemed to be a quote heading up several of the sections, I found one for each section, and I think this is our favorite:

I knew I wanted to be respected. I wanted to be good at a sport. I wanted to be pretty. I wanted to be head librarian. -- Lucy Lawless, star of Xena: Warrior Princess

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 09:28 PM

You know, Mike, I wasn't sure that was you, but as Quasimodo once said, "I have a hunch. . . ."

Snicker snicker

Sorry. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 11:13 PM

Shucks, Don, I thought you'd have recognized me right off.

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: LadyJean
Date: 13 Mar 10 - 12:40 AM

I have internet access from home again! Hallelujah! I had my choice between the local library, where the talkers were fewer, but one of the librarians found me attractive. (She is NOT my type.) Or the Squirrel Hill library, where four year olds play tag among the stacks.
Cell phones are ubiquitous. I wish they weren't. I hate them. I hate them in the library. I hate them on the bus. I hate them in restaurants. I have had the pleasure of sitting beside a kid who was doing I don't know what on the computer while chattering on his cell phone. No jury in the world would have convicted me!

Subject: RE: BS: I am grouching in the library
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Mar 10 - 02:10 AM

Unless the members of the @#$%&! jury were all on their cell phones. . . .

Don Firth