The Sound Of Silence - Should We Re-Invoke It ?

[Canary42]

I had to laugh. Today I got an e-mail from my local library which included the following blurb :-

[i]
"Don’t forget, your library isn’t just for borrowing books. You can also print out documents, use our public computers, find a quiet spot to study, or even book a meeting room."
[i]

The "quiet place to study" is highly optimistic. Modern public libraries are IME very noisy, the old tradition of "hush" no longer applies, and it's often quieter outside in the street.

Should we return to the old traditional "Silence" - IMO yes.

[davebro]

Library? What's that?

[jackthehat]

Libraries are closing at an alarming rate and together with so many other businesses and services have had to diversify to survive.
The more public services they can offer the better the chance they stand of continuing.
Few people go to the library to enjoy the silence and perhaps it is more sensible to offer designated 'quiet spaces' for those desiring such and leave the main body of the building to those venturing over the threshold for whatever reason.

[davebro]

We had a lovely library where I grew up - it had "Carnegie" over the door - he must have been a great philanthropist.

I recall it had parquet flooring & my mum used to take me each week to get a few books to read.

[piggynose]

Birmingham demolished its library built in the mid 70s and built a £250 million state of the art one a few years ago. Within months of opening they reduced the opening hours.

[Canary42]

Yes, a suitably sound-proofed room is probably the best answer, giving the library the opportunity elsewhere on site to exploit all the other modern and diversified services necessary to attract people.

I must admit I often (or did BC) take a trip to Gosport* library because it has a delightful café with delicious snacks.

*This involves a bus journey followed by a boat across Portsmouth Harbour, instead of a ¼-mile stroll to my nearest library :-)

[Sqad]

The last time I entered a public library was 1956.

Libraries were basically but not wholly for bored wives, bored of the day and even more bored of the thought of their husband returning home from work and a book to read was an adequate replacement.

Now of course we have promiscuity and the TV added with "women's equality " to supply the solace of a tolerated existence.

Libraries provided a bolt hole for the tramps and the "poor" in which to read the daily newspapers........they now have TV and no longer need the quietness of the much loved public library.

However, I do admire those folks who can "get lost in a book" as many have described reading........I unfortunately am bored by page the arrival of page 4.

[Peter Pedant]

no it selects for the sort of people they dont want ( olds on their way out)
and operates against those they do ( young, in need of education, and not sure of themselves )

silent empty libraries - something to go for

[Peter Pedant]

oh god libraries closed from boredom when they invented promiscuity

Did I really read that? - shades of Philip Larkin - quite poetic really

[Peter Pedant]

\most surprising discovery in the Library?

Plymouth 1980 - coming across the auto-biog of the fella ( belgrave ) who got my grandfather's job in 1928 - governor of bahrein

names changed etcc Bahrein didnt have a governor but a sultan etc

second most surprising?
my fathers uncle ( not a pedant ) had a forebear so famous he was on a horse in a square somewhere in africa

biog of the second governor of Hong Kong ( well near africa ish) - another light bulb moment - (sozza - anuvva cor blimey fing)- so the uncle was right, he had famous forebears - he is perched on a gee-gee in Mandarin Sq - or outside the Governors House now a museum. - Hong Kong and not Pretoria

[Ken4155]

I phoned up for a seat at the local library, yesterday. Unfortunately it was fully booked.

[Sqad]

Lol ^^^^

[youngmafbog]

Not been in one since all this nonsense started, mainly because they closed them.

But prior to that our local library's were not noisy.

//Libraries are closing at an alarming rate //

Dont appear to be here. There are three I can easily walk to.

[Ken4155]

The last two occasions i have used our 'Central' library was to use their photo-copying facilities (15p per pop) in order to apply for my bus pass. I last visited the library to choose books about 15 years ago.

[piggynose]

if i am not mistaken B´hams old central library used to have a huge letter box for the return of books due back either that day or the folowing day.

[barry1010]

I do miss the reading rooms that most public libraries had. No talking or even whispering allowed there but I do like to see a well-used library. My very small local library is very much a social meeting place these days with coffee mornings, knit and natter (they knit hats for prem babies), mother and toddler sessions, computing for silver surfer sessions and of course - book clubs.

It also hosts CAB sessions twice a month and local councillor meetings so everyone can have a moan about the potholes or whatever the hot topic is. Local history talks, too.

[barry1010]

Sqad, you have a very jaded view of married women.

[piggynose]

Also in B´hams old central library there used to be a chess club in the basement, i´m sure this was to guarantee silence.

[brainiac]

The astonishing total of 2,509 libraries were built with money from Andrew Carnegie, including my local one on Glasgow in which I spent countless happy hours, the books borrowed from which inculcated a lifelong interest in reading, languages and a love of books.

What a fantastic legacy from AC, who said 'the man who dies rich, dies disgraced.'

[barry1010]

Totally agree, brainiac. I would hate to lose our public libraries.

I mostly borrow my library books online these days in the form of ebooks - fabulous that the public libraries have kept up with technology. A godsend during lockdown.

The libraries used to have back copies of Which? which I found very useful at times. I wonder if they still do, or if there is a free online version at the library.
There is also free access to some of the family history research sites that you would have to pay for at home.

[barry1010]

I have often wondered how anyone convinced the councils that a public lending library was a good idea.