Quiet Libraries

Quiet seems very much a thing of the past when it comes to libraries. That has positive and negative aspects, but I shan't go into that right now. I will soon, but not today.

Today I wanted to mention what it *is* like to be in a quiet library, but a library which is quiet in a rather dull way. Only 2 or 3 weeks ago I was actually shushing people (my first shushing as a librarian, how exciting!). Yesterday and today, however, silence, or at least great quiet, reigns in our space. This is, of course, because I work at a university library. The time between semesters is odd: nobody needs you, but there are many things you need to do. Simple things tend to be thrown my way, since I am the intern: check the shelves of the reference section, fix mistakes made by student workers (just because the TX's are here and the MR's are there does not mean that the label on the stacks should read "TX 472.37 --> MR 1253.C5 1998"), etc. I do not mind these tasks at all, and am glad that there is some non-hectic time during which I can do these things. But when I'm sitting at my desk waiting for the phone to ring, for someone to approach the desk, for someone to ping me on Live Chat, for someone to need me in some way...it seems very quiet indeed.