1. The post I did last week on noise in public libraries was a hot discussion topic both on this blog and out in my neighborhood, so I called Nancy Ledeboer, Pima County Library Director, today to get some information about how local libraries are dealing with concerns over noise. As per normal when one speaks with a librarian, I learned something: Libraries are actually serving a broader range of the public than they did in the past, thus being more “public” than ever.

“We say we’re a public library here to serve everyone in the community,” Ledeboer said. “But the truth is what we were servicing in the past were people from middle class backgrounds who grew up in a culture of using the library.”

But now, she explained, libraries are drawing from all strata of the community because libraries offer more than books. The Internet changed the game in the ’90s, and people who could not afford access to a private computer – or lacked Internet access at home – came to the one free place where they knew they could find both computers and Internet access.

“A whole new group of people began coming to the library library looking for information,” Ledeboer said. “That’s a good thing – we’ve got more and more people acquainted with the library and what a library offers. But it did create a clash of sorts because so many people are using it.”

That clash is often about noise. Ledeboer said it has been an issue at many of the 27 branches in the library system, and each of the libraries is dealing with it in different ways.

“We’ve charged each of our libraries to create a quiet zone, and if they don’t have enough space for a quiet zone, then they are working to create a quiet time. “But frankly, some of our libraries are just too small. In that case, people need to approach a librarian if they feel they are being disturbed. Some people are hypersensitive to noise, and some people don’t know they’re being noisy so it is a matter of finding a find balance where people can all coexist in the libraries. We do have a code of conduct policy posted on our Website that says you’re not allowed to create a disruption that interferes with other people’s use of the libraries, but we don’t have specific ‘no cellphone’ policies.”

Ledeboer also said that the belief that fewer people are reading books because they only use the library for the computers or to hang out after school is a fallacy. She said books circulation is actually way up in the past few years when contrasted to before the time when libraries were community centers, and part of that is because when people come into a library branch to do research on a computer or participate in one of the job clubs or book clubs or get tutoring, they often leave with a book as well.

So, yes, libraries may be more noisy than in the past, but that is because libraries are, thanks to computers, Internet access and the myriad programs offers, actually living up to the “public” in their names in a manner that didn’t happen in the past. And that’s a great thing. See how much you can learn if you talk to a librarian?

2. Yet again, there was a study saying we’re killing ourselves with food. Actually, the report was about how more 60-somethings are disabled now than ever before and that disability is directly attributed to obesity. This is something that really gets on my last nerve because – surprise – we all have the ability to control what we eat. (Well, except for those people who have the syndrome where they eat in their sleep and all that.) We have the ability to get off our tail and go for a walk or something more strenuous. We have the ability to say no or go to food-addiction meetings to get help saying no. But we don’t. How many times do we have to hear that we are killing ourselves by eating this and drinking this and then eating this? With talk of health care all the rage, is anyone besides me wondering if we should put a limit on what a government plan would cover in regards to illnesses caused by obesity? Should healthy taxpayers have to pay for people to get insulin when their diabetes could be controlled with diet but those people refuse to control their food intake? Should we fine parents who let their children get obese? If you want help eating right and exercising, here’s an article you could read. And here is a clue: The sooner you start getting in shape, the better it is for you. It is harder to lose weight with every passing year and the damage is cumulative.

3. And speaking of eating …Thanksgiving is just around the corner and fellow religion blogger Karen Edmisten is asking, “Have you started your Thanksgiving tree?” If you don’t know what one is, check out her blog here. We used to make these when my kids were small and I’m thinking the idea needs to be revisited, especially in this year of loss. Too often we focus on what we don’t have … a Thanksgiving Tree is the cure for that.

4.  John Allen, reporter on all things Catholic and Vatican has come out with a new book, The Future Church: How 10 Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church. In this blog post, he says that if he had to pick a motto for his book it would be “Designed to start arguments, not settle them.” Sounds like my kind of read. Anyway, he is inviting people to read the book and then meet in cyberspace for discussions — should be fun. (And maybe interesting to see who actually shows up.

5. And finally, if you want to do good while you’re searching the Web, add GoodSearch to your browser. You can pick any charity you want and they get funds from your searches. Share, and share alike is what I say.

I didn’t realize my post about loud libraries would elicit such fervent comments. Ergo, I think I need to offer a clarification or two, the first of which is I LOVE LIBRARIES! OK, and the rest:

#1. I’m normally not so cranky when I write a post and so my tone was, well, cranky. When you write about libraries, you shouldn’t be cranky because they are great institutions run by great people who have a love of the printed word. (Let us all give homage to words on paper even if the whole world is headed toward reading on iPhones.)

#2. I wasn’t picking on the Oro Valley library, I just happened to be there that day. I regularly visit the Nanini Library and the Joel Valdez Main Library as well, with an occasional jaunt to the Woods Memorial Branch Library and the cell phone chatting is present in all of them. I’ve mentioned noise to librarians before at those various branches, which is how I learned about the libraries as community center model. And most days, it doesn’t bother me, really. Yesterday was just one too many cell phone chatters.

#3. I am not an ogre who thinks there should be absolute silence in libraries, or stern librarians getting angry with library patrons, although it would be easy to think I believe those things from yesterday’s (cranky) post. I recognize that libraries have to be more welcoming than some might have found them in the past. Just the fact that every city library I visit is JAM-PACKED most days is evidence that libraries are doing things the right way.

#4. I do, however, mourn the loss of manners on the part of library patrons, especially, like I said, the people who should know better. You might expect teens to chat away oblivious to those around them; I was surprised to see it happening with more mature folks. I have no problem with small children running squealing through the library in joy; I love seeing that. And tutoring is wonderful (and have done it myself), even if it is in a louder voice; anything to help kids is to be praised and I was a dweeb to criticize (I was cranky!)  But talking on cell phones at length in full voice or not turning your phone ringer to silent? That seems impossibly rude and that’s really what pushed my cranky button yesterday.

All that said, perhaps the people talking on the cell phones yesterday do not have access to computers in their home. Perhaps they have to come to the library to conduct business by phone because they need both an Internet connection and a phone. Perhaps they lost their jobs and are trying to remake their lives and have to use the library as their office (this is reportedly happening across the nation) and they can’t whisper on the phone because whomever is on the line would then know that they aren’t in an office.

In other words, there might be plenty of reasons besides rudeness that people talk on their cell phones in what used to be a semi-silent space. I should have considered that before posting — instead of letting my cranky-self rule the day.

I wish I saw this sign in my local library (sigh). Image courtesy of CityofSound blog

So, I’m in the Oro Valley Public Library, a satellite of the Pima County Library System, and it is crowded and, more often than not, noisy. It appears all the laid-off people in OV now spend their days in the library – or maybe OV has always had this many self-employed folks. Whatever, they are noisy. Their cell phones ring and they answer them (!!!) right where they are sitting, frequently carrying on a detailed, fully voiced conversation.

There are also kind adults tutoring kids and, OK, that is a good thing overall, but I don’t really understand why the instruction has to be loud. And, a few minutes ago, a dog-trainer came in with a handi-dog doing what is necessary to train the dog (expose dog to people and places) but the chatter she carried on was not necessary.

This is all part of the movement of library as entertainment center to make libraries more accessible to the public. It has its positive points; one does want the public to use libraries, even if few of them read something actually printed on paper and head instead to the bank of computers. But there is something to be said about silence, as well as for basic manners.

Everyone knows the young imitate the old, so I would hope the 40 to 60 year olds could maintain some decorum and set an example for the younsters, but alas, it isn’t so. In fact, the Baby Boomer set, overall is louder than the younger library-goers. I just listened to a 60-something man at the computer station conduct a 15-minute conversation on his cell with someone about a Web page he was viewing. This guy sitting at a table behind me? His cell phone ring is turned up to “loud and annoying.” What is up with that? Turn the dang thing to vibrate, buddy!

You can’t stop progress, or so they say, so this new silent-never-more library-with-a-bookstore-feel train can’t be derailed. But perhaps the librarians could consider allocating space on the basis of noise level. You know, a tutoring section, a chit-chat section and then a research and study session where the old golden rule of silence – and no cell phones – applied. Just sayin’.