Quiet libraries

[mtbc]

In the US I made plenty of use of the Columbus Metropolitan Library system. Later I mostly used the Rochambeau^* Library in Providence then the Belmont Public Library in Massachusetts. Over many years I never noticed these places being anything other than quiet.

We spend the occasional Saturday afternoon at the Central Library in Dundee. It's surprisingly noisy. We have students and tutors talking at desks, we have beginners' recorder practice (yesterday), we have people using the wifi to make video calls from their laptop, we have people eating snacks messily and leaving the debris all over, we once had folk music filling the whole place, and lately we've often had the librarians themselves having loud conversations about trivia (again yesterday, How was your day off? and more). And I'm thinking, Really?. Perhaps the modern way is to make the library into some kind of broader community center^† but if I just want to sit and read then I'm increasingly finding the library absolutely not the place to attempt it. At least if I head to the top floor and around a corner people don't usually even notice exists then I can usually find a table somewhere that is enough away from noisy people.

I was wondering if this is a Dundee thing or a British thing or just me getting old and moaning about the kids these days. It may be Dundee as I don't recall noisiness in any of the Perthshire library branches that we use.

^*General Rochambeau was in Providence with the French Army helping the Americans to fight the British.

^†After all, yesterday we were there so that the children could watch a Pokémon film in the branch's cinema!

Comments

[mindstalk]

I don't think Cambridge Main is that loud, but it's not silent either, especially the first floor where you've got tables that people tutor or just hang out at, near the vending machines. Other parts are quieter. I think there are dedicated Quiet Reading Rooms, too. I know the Monroe County library had those.

[mtbc]

Vending machines! Dedicated reading rooms sounds good though.