To the people at Alderney Gate and Keshen:
SHUT UP.
Libraries are for reading. Period. Books, newspaper, computer or other new forms of media.
There are rooms set aside for the following: Business meeting. Tutoring. Watching Obama getting sworn in on a television. An author to have a reading with a sound system that can be heard all over the library. A brass band. A violin quartet. I do like classical but I have to be fair, can’t keep what I want and get rid of what I don’t.
Teens you want to have a party go to the mall.
Old people you want to have a place to sit and shot the shit. Stay at the coffee shop where you bought the coffee.
You know on public transit in Japan no one talks. —Wish i was deaf
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.
and you all thnk a new library will be better, noise levals 10 times higher, when anyone goes that is. thank you, but i’ll stick to the net, and get my info faster than some book.
Be careful what you wish for or the library staff will have to yell just so you can read their lips.
In Japan on public transit people don’t talk because 1: they don’t know anyone else in there, 2: they are texting, or 3: they are asleep. If you have problem with people being loud in the library, walk up to them and say: “excuse me but I would appreciate it if you could keep it down.”
Comparing Japanese culture to Canadian culture is pointless. It’s frowned upon to kiss in Japan, so does that mean that we should stop kissing loved ones in public?
While I’d admit that talking in a library is kinda annoying, you can take the books home. They have this odd transaction they call “checking out”. You take the book to a scanner, and scan it, completing the transaction. You then take the book home, and return it within the time indicated. If you have a hard time reading there, it’s amazing what a locked door and a room can do for you in your home.
Actually, the rooms you’re referring to are set aside for library programming and as rentals for profit and non-profit community organizations. Individuals can only make use of them on a casual basis when they are not otherwise being used.
Consider the design of Keshen Goodman: Noise travels in an open space.
If you want absolute silence, there are spaces set aside at the university libraries for this purpose.
As a former long-time resident of Japan, I have to say that OP’s statement doesn’t really apply anymore. In rural areas with a larger 50-plus population, you do get less noise, but otherwise you have to deal with noisy headphones, loud chatting, and other familiar stuff.
And as a former library employee… Yeah, I agree with OP for the most part. And it’s not just the public libraries – For some reason, SMU’s library’s volume got cranked up ever since the renovations.