Do you still have to be quiet in a library?

[Enko]

Dh and I are in our 50s and were both brought up (2 different countries) with libraries being quiet studious places.

Lately we have noticed a change in this. Are others finding this?

Is it now normal for libraries to not be quiet spaces /or have quiet spaces?

Where else can you go for a quiet space to study if not the library and you are not able to do so at home?

Also how are you supposed to read to toddlers, and get them interested in reading, if you have to be quiet? Go and be quiet at home.

Um can you not bring the books home and be loud there? Surely it's best to co-exist where possible? No one persons needs should trump the others.

Ever reducing funding means libraries have condensed down to one small space and rent out other areas to private companies to generate income. As a result adults and children share one open plan area so having a quiet space is impossible.

As a pp pointed out, you can’t get young children into books and reading if you need silence. Likewise for the baby/toddler read/sing/rhyme groups.

We have one library in the borough that has maintained some study spaces in a room for silent study, it was always oversubscribed and is even more so now they’ve cut the space down to a third of what it was.

There's nothing wrong with having a few places in the community where it is required to be quiet.

I've found the same chatty noise in my local library which is why I've not used it for the last 20 years other than (more recently) for Amazon Locker pickups. Wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything. That said I'm very glad these community spaces are available and offering that interactivity for people who like it but it's just not for me.

If you're in London or Boston Spa the British Library's Reading Rooms are pretty silent. Anyone over 18 can get a reader's pass www.bl.uk/help/how-to-get-a-reader-pass

I think I'd enjoy the Diogenes Club, invented for the Sherlock Holmes books by Conan Doyle :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_Club

Jo

When I said I didn’t recall anything like this when I was a child I was referring to security guards and the situation with homeless people. No issue with reading to children in the library or toddler groups. I took both DC to library based groups when they were small.

But telling people to ‘go home’ for peace and quiet isn’t helpful as some people are unable to do this for various reasons (eg noisy house share).

It was dh who was trying to work and he had headphones on. Two women sat down in the work area where he and 1 other person was working. DH said he could hear their chatter through his headphones. The other person left after exchanging glances with dh. DH left too

The library is newly (re) built and has a large general area downstairs. where there is a coffee shop and the area they do toddler and other classes. We are not close to any uni libraries. nor does any of the coffee shops have rooms to hire out. Was what sparked the conversation about where else you could go.

All the libraries in my local area have spent the last few months making a big deal about all the various groups opening - reopening and all the services they now provide/ operate from various libraries.

Each library seems to have at least one thing going on each day.

My local academic library don't allow the general public unless they have put in an application with strong academic reasons for why they need to use that particular library. They do try to maintain quiet but not total silence. Public library is too busy for someone to do serious study unfortunately.

My local library is small, single story and is not quiet. DD used to go there to study for her exams as she found there were were fewer distractions than at home. But impossible when there's a toddler story session on or similar.

The main Glasgow library in the city centre still has silent study spaces.

The University libraries will issue day passes at quiet times but these have to be requested in advance so can't be used for a "I want a quiet space to study today".

Ours hasn’t just embraced chatter, it also stripped out the carpets, curtains and soft ceilings for bare wood and glass so that the noise bounces everywhere. It’s intolerable without earplugs.

They also put in long low shelves in the kids section that look like they’re meant for climbing on, so every few minutes there are announcements not to climb on the shelves and grave threats about unattended children (which seems to be widely interpreted as an offer of free wrap around care)

I miss the 1970s

It's a bit 50/50. If there is a toddler/ childrens activity, then not so much. Otherwise, at least round here, they usually are. But if a parent comes in with obnoxiously loud children they aren't asked to shush like we used to be 🤣 so it's entirely dependent on when you go I'd assume

Libraries have been places to get out of adverse weather where you don't have to spend any money - so the staff have been dealing with rowdy teenagers and antisocial people for donkey's years.

I'm just grateful they still exist, and am prompted to go to use my own local library a bit more to try to support it.

OP, when I needed a place outside of the home to work I'd try to find a quiet corner in my local Wetherspoons (coffee refills!), another pub or a coffee shop, with earphones and some kind of relaxation music to play into them to drown out other people - but it was always a gamble as to if I'd get people who were too annoying come and sit near me.

I still put my headphones in my ears even with nothing playing in with them if I want to concentrate, it seems to do something to me that isn't just blocking out a bit of noise.

Our library has just has a massive refit and the kids area is now in a separate area behind a door! They also do the toddler bits in a separate section. It’s not deathly quiet but there is a definite sense that you shouldn’t be chatting at full volume.

What a good idea.

My public library always has loads going on, toddler playtime, lego clubs, book clubs, knitting etc. It's a fantastic resource, I've only recently become aware of how much they offer.

I graduated 4 years ago, my university library was always full of people studying and you were expected to be as quiet as possible. I assume it's still the same but it's for students only and you need a student card to swipe in and out.

I used to work In a Public Library. I enjoyed working in the Adult Lending section but absolutely hated doing my turn in the children's library. Kids pulling.books off shelves willy nilly and I got told off for saying to them " Let's just pick these up and put them back" and the parents would just walk away.

Basically kids could do whatever they wanted, the parents couldn't give a shit as long as their little darlings were on someone else's watch.

@shivawn

I get what you're saying but the difference is between a public and an academic library. I've worked in both and they're very different animals. My own opinion is that both have become too much about social spaces. In my time in working in a public
Library I was also told off for "shushing". If a library isn't a quiet place, where is?

That is,what dh and I are,asking ourselves too..

Won't it depend on the size of the library ?
Ideally, libraries would have different rooms for meeting the needs of different users.

Libraries should be quiet, it's no wonder that people aren't using them if they are letting people be noisy. It'll go the way of cinemas since they started letting people use phones and generally behave like pigs, annoying the people who actually want to watch the film.

Yeah ours is the same. Just last week I shushed my DS and explained that you've got to be quiet in the library. You're still allowed to talk though just not loudly and incessantly which is most children favourite bit like the volume of a bank I suppose.

Library are dying a slow death.many have already.or have turned into community libraries run by volunteers,losing so many people there jobs.
I think the quiet linked to study was before computer usage too.you needed the boooks so that is where you went to study.I think people would choose the library less even if it was silent.in most though they have the main library and rooms off it where they hold the groups.and this room in ours can be used for people who need quiet.
I don’t think they encourage noise though and still try to make it a more calmly place.but also I used to hate our school library,bloody jobsworth sssshing us all the time was simply for her pleasure.
i think now they can be a haven for many.
some will become warm spaces with the cost of living this winter too.
mand I don’t like the referred link to inruly and those with mh problems.
also if it means those youths aren’t on the street. Plus if they get too much you tell them to leave.

They could be used a lot better.and no doubt be converted back to the old style of the Tories hadn’t fucked up yet another place that hasn’t the money to hold it steady.

University library? Often they allow locals to use it as a reference library.

Some pubs have a no music/no TV policy and can be quiet.

Not in the one where I used to work. Children could run around screaming and bashing into old ladies trying to choose books, and staff were not allowed to say anything. Mummies would say gently, ‘Don’t do that, or the lady will be cross.’

NB, not, ‘Don’t do that, because we don’t run around screaming in libraries.’ And of course it was ‘the lady’ (staff) who’d be cross, not nice kind gentle-parent Mummy. And of course the kids would blithely carry on regardless, and she’d give that helpless, ‘What can you do?’ shrug.🤬