For the last few years I have found American library employees to speak very loudly when interacting with patrons and with each other. Other people are not admonished to be quiet.
I think being quiet matters to make the best of reading and of learning. Does quiet matter?
I think a library should contain quiet spaces. I think expecting the entire space to be silent is unrealistic given the number of important interactions that might require communication.
People in general appear to be less concerned if they bother others. And more hearing impaired. I expect whispered conversations in the reading area, it’s the wrong place for Karaoke.
Last (university) library i was in had designated areas for talking and for silence. The talking areas had open tables where any group of students could work on/talk about their subjects and corals where smaller groups could gather for group work behind a closed door. Nearby were desktop computers or students could use their laptops connecting to the university’s intranet. The open areas could occasionally be filled with very racous groups.
The silent areas were useful but I found the silence oppressive and “loud”. Thankfully I did not need to visit there often (in my role as a sign language interpreter) and only really used the space when working on my own professional development programme.
The best part was the nearest (on campus) coffee shop was directly opposite the library entrance. There was no rule about not driking in the library.
Reference libraries: yes
Education / study libraries: yes
Normal libraries: no, these are more like bookshops for browsing. You’re not expecting to read here. You didn’t expect quiet while browsing the VHS tapes in Blockbuster.
The size of the library is also going to figure in. I’d expect the area around the circulation and reference desks to be somewhat noisier, the children’s area in a public library might be fairly chaotic, and so on. In a small library, that might affect the entire space, while a larger library will have quiet areas off in the stacks.
“Normal libraries” That’s interesting. What is that? A county library?
You’ve never been to a library that isn’t attached to an academic or research institution? Wow. Go! They have them in most towns and villages. They are great. They’re, as I imply above, like Blockbuster but for books.
I go frequently to such places. “Normal” could mean anything. I want to be sure what is meant.
Came across this thread while looking for ways to handle distraction because my local library has become noisy as well. The staff and students talk constantly, and it completely ruins my focus.
I used to need absolute silence to get any work done. Lately, since I started using CBD to manage stress, I noticed my tolerance for background noise changed a bit, but it still bugs me when people treat a library like a coffee shop.
Libraries definitely need to bring back the quiet rules. Some of us actually go there because we can’t focus at home. Did your library ever get any better since you posted this?
For anyone in that scenario, public spaces are unlikely to be the answer.
I personally find coffee shops much better to work in than libraries — A “general background noise” is less disruptive to me than a quiet room that has occasional but minor noise spikes from coughs, typing or page turning.
One thing to remember: municipalities typically view libraries as primarily about providing equality of access to information to their communities. That will drive their design and policy decisions, such as adding more and more computer banks to give internet access to those without home access (or indeed a home) at the expense of study areas, and setting noise policies that make as many people as possible feel welcome and able to ask for help.
That said, I’ve been in a couple of libraries recently that have dedicated quiet study rooms (although one of those had a no laptop policy in the quiet room) which I’d welcome in more libraries if space allows. Interestingly, though, from the few I’ve seen these rooms were significantly less busy than “normal” noisier areas.[1]
this is a small sample size: low number of libraries; low number of communities (one was in a private members library, for example); low number of visits; low duration of observation; low diversity of observation time of day. I’d be interested to learn if the observation extrapolates more widely) ↩︎
As a teacher, I can attest to how important that silence is. I teach my kids to be quiet in libraries. The research and common practice show how vital it is.
It may be that the public space of a library is not the answer as it is noisy, but that needs to change for the good of everyone. They used to be quiet. They can be quiet again.
MLQA—Make Libraries Quite Again 