My point was merely playing back what I’d learned from talking to city planners in charge of library resources, who viewed the primary role of libraries as reducing inequality of access to information. The result of this was that it was more important to them that they provided a welcoming environment with internet access for the homeless or unemployed than it was that they provided a quiet space for people.
This view is, of course, representative of only a sub-set of all libraries. Public, not private. City / municipal, not attached to education institutions. Specific geographic regions, not necessarily representative of a universal truth.
So, yes, I was sharing a “limited view” (and as it happens, not one that was mine particularly). But let’s not forget that everyone here is sharing their own limited view from their own perspective. Thank you for adding yours.
The difficulty with noise is that it’s asymmetric: I can bother you with my noise, but you can’t bother me with your silence. They are not equivalent behaviours.
The suggestion that someone should tolerate selfish behaviour, positing that it’s character-building, is not a position I remotely support.
Absolutely. I mean, I’d go one step further and remove the “positing that it’s character-building” — why tolerate selfish behaviour for any reason?
The idea that making a normal amount of noise in a public place is selfish behaviour, though, is not universally held. (I happen to agree with you in the case of libraries, but — as I’ve noted — some of the people who build and run libraries don’t). I would also say that in my experience many people do indeed consider asking others to be silent (even in a movie theatre!) to be rude and selfish these days. It annoys me to bits, but it’s the world we live in.
Reminds me of some apartment neighbors who reacted surprisingly humorless when I gave them a call some time after midnight: “Just in case my sleep disturbs your construction work, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”
Stumbled upon this post while searching for tips on handling distractions, since my neighborhood library has gotten so loud lately. The staff and students chatter nonstop, which completely wrecks my concentration.
I used to require total silence to get any work done. Since I started taking CBD for stress, my tolerance for background noise shifted a bit, but it still drives me crazy when people treat a library like a coffee shop.
Libraries really need to bring back strict quiet zones. Some of us head there simply because focusing at home is impossible. Has your library improved at all since you shared this?
“The homeless or unemployed” are also “people,” FWIW.
Much of the noise in the library I use most often comes from small children. The people using the computers – I haven’t researched their employment status – are usually pretty quiet.
Several of the libraries near me have reservable private study rooms. They’re quiet enough that I’ve used them for video calls when my home internet was down. That seems to be a reasonable compromise among the needs of various users.
My public library used to be an oasis. It has now turned into a warming station for homeless people. Most of the book racks are empty and gone are the expensive books I donated. It is turning into an safe injection site. Last time I was there I saw people with the luggage sleeping in chairs.
I don’t think that I have a dispute with you about this, Pigfender. I may have a bone to pick with these planners you refer to, though.
The homeless and unemployed have an even more desperate need than many for a quiet, safe place to study, research, read an entertaining book, etc. as they literally have no home to go to; no place to peruse a book or other media. Yes, a library should be welcoming. Yes, it should have internet access for all. But it still needs to be a haven for those who can’t learn in a noisy environment.
My own city libraries appear to have reached a compromise. I haven’t had trouble lately sharing space with my homeless neighbors, though it was distressing a couple of years ago. I don’t know what was done to achieve this, but I applaud it, and invite the professionals you quote to come here and find out how.
I agree with every word in this post, and therefore revert back to my original self-insertion on the topic for whether libraries should be quiet…
If a building is intended to fulfil more than one of these (in my opinion) very different roles, it will (also in my opinion) need to provide them via very different spaces and environments.