Isn't a library supposed to be quiet?

I'm studying at the library (ok, and procrasting on TCS.... ), and so far, a lady's phone has rung and she had a conversation on it for a good 5 minutes or so, there was 2 guys next to me having what looked like a businesy sort of meeting, and there's been a baby crying nearby for close to 20 minutes now!

The baby is the most frustrating. There's people trying to work/study all around me, and having a baby screaming its lungs out is REALLY annoying! If you're in a library, surely you'd have some respect for other people, and take the baby outside to calm it down, and if it didn't then either just do whatever you're doing outside for a while (there's free wi-fi outside), or go elsewhere that's more noise friendly.

Sheesh.

Most of them I've been in were... though they're never busy around here.

Maybe the mother has some studying to do, too? She can't help it if her baby is fussy - though I really do not like the sound of crying babies, so I can understand how annoying that can be.

Do you have an mp3 player or anything? Drown out the noise with something more enjoyable if you do.

Eww that just sucks. There's actually nothing worse than a screaming baby when you're after peace and quiet! And the woman on her phone? I thought they all had to be turned off when you were in a library! How disrespectful!

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Maybe the mother has some studying to do, too? She can't help it if her baby is fussy - though I really do not like the sound of crying babies, so I can understand how annoying that can be.

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If you have a fussy baby - don't go to a library to study! Not only does it disturb everyone else, but the baby must be so bored!

Oh my gosh!!!! That baby should have been taken out of there! How disrespectfull to everyone in there! Our "quite rooms" at the university sound like your library. There are signs that say "TURN YOUR CELL PHONE OFF" and people still answer it and talk. Luckily there is a professor in there everytime I've used the room and the proffessor will ask them to leave the room.

Maybe the baby wasn't fussy earlier? Or the mother hoped it would sleep.

I'd get up and tell one of the staff members that it's too noisy and to do something about it. Most libraries shouldn't tolerate that. I know the ones here don't.

I'd rather stay sitting on my lazy butt and just complain to you guys I can't imagine they would tell a mother to control her crying baby - there'd be public outrage!

Crying baby - take the infant outside ....

Cell phone useage - people have no respect these days for their intrusion into others spaces. I was standing in line at the drug store and there was a woman in line ahead of me having a rather, um, intimate conversation with someone I assume was a woman friend about... her um, intimate time with her SO. I leaned out of line and looked at her with raised eyebrows - as if to say - take it some place else and she glowered at me as if to say, hey don't listen in to my chatter - loud and disruptive chatter - so that everyone on line knew what she had done the night before... Sheesh!!!!

And I just had to tell the chick opposite me to stop snapping her gum She was sitting there chewing it with her mouth open, then snapping. I was so ready to kill her. I eventually asked her to stop and she says "oh sorry, its a subconscious thing". I was thinking of telling for someone so well dressed it was a disgusting habit.

I remember years ago when I was a kid that if you so much as whispered the Librarian shushed you!

These days libraries seem to be anything but quiet and the staff don't seem to care. I go to the large main library downtown and it's so noisey: tour groups, groups of teens, crying babies, kids left to run around and scream and yell while their parent(s) sits nearby doing nothing.

I go there and borrow books, but I go across the street to A&W if I want to read any of them

Natalie- I agree with you.

The library near my house is anything but quiet. I tried to study there- once. Between the kids playing online games, the other people surfing, people talking, and then the people who know me coming over and "chatting" I got absolutly NOTHING done.

I quit going over to that library to study. There's another one (I live in a decent sized city where we've got at least 6) that has a designated quiet area. And if you REALLY want it quiet, you just have to sign up to be able to use a study room for a couple of hours. Did that for a while. Then I told my family that I was tired of having to leave MY house to study. So they've been helping out so I don't have to go anywhere.

However, it's kind of nice to see our library so active. There's tons of kids' activities there, and anything you can do to get a kid to read is a good thing IMHO.

Trust me, I WORK in one and it's anything but quiet. The kids room isn't closed off (not really a 'room' but a 'space') and so we get screaming/squealing/yelling/crying all ... bloody ... day ... long.

And people wonder why I come home from there with a headache.

Don't even ask about cell phones... we have signage at the door, on the tables, at the counter, etc about turning off the ringers... yet you constantly hear them go off. People talking at normal levels, children running around screaming, people stealing magazines and stuff, eating at the computers (with a sign two feet from their faces telling them NOT to), trashing stuff. We've had a problem with teens being 'disrespectful' (to put it VERY politely), among other things.

Oh yes, and the screaming children? It's not always that the parent is studying... sometimes they're sitting right there, watching the little terror scream and cry. Do they do anything? Nope.

OTOH, some parents are more understanding. If no parent is around, sometimes I'll actually go up to the brat and ask them to be quiet when they're in the library. I just wish someone would tell the teens... so we wouldn't have to call the police when they get unruly. And yes, we've had to on many occasions.

People are all about themselves (cell phones) and parents letting their children get away with nearly anything. People have lost the respect for the institution of the library and being respectful of others... they just don't care. Not ALL people... just the ones you see doing the aforementioned rudeness...

I'm gonna go take more pain pills now... my head is killing me.

Amanda