I sit here in the library of my college–where almost everyone is not only above 18 but supposedly of sufficient intelligence to attend an institute of higher learning–and it is clearly evident that somewhere in each of these grown-up problem children’s developmental history somebody failed to make the connection between “you are in a library” and “it is time to SHUT THE FUCK UP”. To my right sits a man who talks to his computer in a full outdoor voice: “Oh I just LOVE lag!” “Do whatever you want, computer!” etc.
Me (after two or three such monologues): “You realize this is a library, right?”
Computer Medium: “Yeah, I know. That’s the point.”
Me: “Well, I would appreciate it if you’d be quiet.”
Computer Medium: :rolleyes:
To my left sits a man with one of those cellphones whose vibrate function actually kills the whole point of setting it on vibrate, and is EXTREMELY LOUD. Well, if that’s what your phone’s like, and you need to get your call/text message/whatever, fine–but SHUT THE DAMN THING OFF and look at your message after one or two vibrations, rather than filling the library with the sound of the thing shaking like a leaf and hoping that nobody notices. A few minutes ago somebody walked from one end of the library to the other to reach the door so that she could have a phone conversation–but she didn’t actually wait till she got outside to start the conversation! So she’s just slowly sidling through the FUCKING LIBRARY yapping away on her cellphone.
SHUT THE FUCK UP! SHUT UP! YOU’RE IN A GOD DAMNED LIBRARY! AGGGHH!
Dude, if you’re trying to study in your college’s social hall, er, I mean library - why haven’t you invested in a cheap pair of earplugs? Seriously they are essential. I also noticed a huge (good) difference using them on exams - no more pencil tapping, no more laptop stroking. Just my own little test-taking world.
Twice. One guy was only texting, which I am sure he thought was the height of reverence (actually, the dumb teenybopper girl was talking “softly” so I’m sure she had no idea why I was looking daggers at her.[/hijack]
This is a much-deserved pitting. And public libraries (San Francisco, anyway) are even worse. What happened to a library being a place for silence. It seems that people have either forgotten this or become ruder. And the cell phones make it even worse. The librarians seem oblivious to everything and never ask anyone to quiet down. I can’t really blame them, as some of the patrons seems of the homeless/not in their right mind strain.
Isn’t there some technology that would block phones ringing in a building. If so, even with the slgiht inconvenience it would bring, they should all have to install it.
I’ve found that San Diego public libraries, UCSD and SDSU’s libraries and the libraries at the University of Arizona are just fine. In fact, in UCSD you’ll often get hushed by ignorant people in a non-quiet zone. But here at my college, it is a fucking social hall.
Yeah, but that would punish people who leave their phones on vibrate and actually open the damn things and shut them off after a shake. And it would mean that ER surgeons couldn’t come to libraries, and that staff in a big library might not be able to communicate with each other.
The library at my university had a stroke of genius by putting in a Starbucks/computer area and several other common rooms. Thus did they reduce drastically the number of people who actually need to dig in to the stacks and study or research a topic.
The addition of group study rooms helped tremendously as well.
If you’ve got the gumption, you might put forward a proposal to your university or SGA to implement similar changes and get the chatty, yammering idiots out of the stacks. I don’t know of anything harder than trying to bone up for a test or research obscure materials with sorostitutes and frat-daddies talking in the text carrel.
No Cell Phone policies are a real bitch to enforce but unfortunately they’re necessary. And the library ‘weird fringe’ usually aren’t the ones who pitch technicolor tantrums when asked to either turn their phones to vibrate or make calls in the lobby. The nastiest confrontations at my place–to the point of having to call the police–have come from the smug middle-class types with a huge sense of entitlement. They seem genuinely affronted, not embarrassed, at having to behave with basic courtesy.
For every person who’s gotten pissy about over actually having to be considerate of others (an alien concept, apparently), the vocal gratitude from everyone else makes up for it.
Don’t stew in silence. Libraries have an obligation to provide a reasonably quiet environment in which to read, study, etc. They shouldn’t be tombs but at least they can be relatively peaceful. Complain to the library’s managment if it isn’t done. It’s their responsibility. They need to grow a spine. Caving in to the lowest common denominator is a cop-out.
Anyway, it amazes me how stupid people who attend college can be, and not just in libraries. Why yes, I’ve been browsing MySpace profiles, why do you ask?
Gumption I’ve got; time I haven’t. Good idea, though, maybe I’ll see if it bothers anyone else and we can start a group or somesuch.
I believe it was you (may have been another San Diego Doper) who said you had lived in North Park or University Heights and I mentioned that I’m only just on the other side of El Cajon Blvd. I, for one, am not up for a commute from Mission Valley to La Jolla and back again. I attend a local community college; I’d rather not name which one.
I feel your pain. All term long, the stacks are my El Dorado. They are empty and silent; the only people there are either studying peacefully, like myself, or innocently searching for books. However, this all changes at the end of the term. Instantly the fucking library is full of the same morons who have squander the previous three months drinking and sleeping-in missing morning classes. Fuckshit people, don’t pollute the library with your last minute cramming. Go to the bar, where you’ve spent the last three months, and fucking study. But no, instead the hordes descend upon the library in some vain belief that being surrounded by books will save them. Also, they inevitably study together; praying that between them and their random collection of notes they’ll piece together a complete picture of 12 weeks of lecturing.
These people are bastards. They need be banned. Also, and I’m certain of this, they’re the only people who recall my books.
The idea of a college library is that a student can study in total quiet–or with his or her own music, should the student bring headphones and a music player–while having access to the books, videos, microfiche, audio resources, etc. that he or she may need to do his or her project. Our campus is spacious and has lots of room for conversationalists. In case the conversationalists need to be indoors–which they don’t, because we’re in fucking San Diego–they can go to the Student Center, where they are also free to eat, drink, and blast loud music if they feel the need.
There is indeed a way to block cell signals, but it’s illegal to do so in the US (would block emergency doctors calls, ets.) I understand that it is used in Europe, though.
Living and working on a college campus (student in dorms who works at dining hall) I’ve realized that kids in college, overall, seem no more intelligent than anyone else. They ask the same stupid questions, are rude, loud, obnoxious, lazy, and some seem to have no idea what the word “polite” means. They’re ALWAYS on their fucking cellphones, always with the iPods turned up so loud they could get hit by a truck honking at them and they wouldn’t see it coming, bump into you unnecessarily, take up the whole sidewalk, etc.
I haven’t had to go to the library yet for research, but ours isn’t too bad. During finals, I bet it’s horrible because everyone and their mother is in there. Defeats the purpose of a “quiet” studying area. But when I do go in there to get coffe from the Starbucks on the lower level, everyone I see walking upstairs to the first floor of stacks is on their phone.
I’ve learned not to expect anything from my peers anymore, because I likely won’t get it. I study in my room by myself. Sucks for those who can’t, I guess.
“Well, I would appreciate it if you’d be quiet.”
I attend a local community college; I’d rather not name which one.