We have that same problem here now with public libraries no longer being quiet places to read and/or work. You could have been quoting from a review of our local library I read recently with regard to the staff chatting loudly! I am still taken aback to find crowds of small children being ‘entertained’ and encouraged to shout and run around, while young mums fill the aisles with buggies and chat, but I’m told that libraries are for children. Ours even intentionally removed the comfy quiet seating area with racks of newspapers and magazines on the first floor, previously frequented daily by a group of lonely but perfectly respectable retirees who often had no other reason to leave their homes, because (so I was told) the library did not want to encourage older people to use it to sit for hours quietly reading! It’s a different world indeed.
Judy, that’s so sad. Loneliness, fuel poverty and more can be helped by public buildings! (The clue is in the name). Just a change of scenery can be so valuable.
I don’t see why most children can’t be reasonably quiet in a library. We used to go and knew to be quiet. It’s a useful thing to learn. It feels like reliably quiet public places are incredibly hard to find.
!!! What’s the world coming to when we have to shush librarians!
We have that same problem here now with public libraries no longer being quiet places to read and/or work. You could have been quoting from a review of our local library I read recently with regard to the staff chatting loudly! I am still taken aback to find crowds of small children being ‘entertained’ and encouraged to shout and run around, while young mums fill the aisles with buggies and chat, but I’m told that libraries are for children. Ours even intentionally removed the comfy quiet seating area with racks of newspapers and magazines on the first floor, previously frequented daily by a group of lonely but perfectly respectable retirees who often had no other reason to leave their homes, because (so I was told) the library did not want to encourage older people to use it to sit for hours quietly reading! It’s a different world indeed.
Judy, that’s so sad. Loneliness, fuel poverty and more can be helped by public buildings! (The clue is in the name). Just a change of scenery can be so valuable.
I don’t see why most children can’t be reasonably quiet in a library. We used to go and knew to be quiet. It’s a useful thing to learn. It feels like reliably quiet public places are incredibly hard to find.