genuinegirly

What are the common-sense things you expect people to know they should do or not do when visiting a library?
Do we take it for granted that everyone knows what to do in a library?
Are expectations significantly different when visiting a library in another state or country?
How does it affect you when someone breaks the understood protocol?

Do:
- read materials
- enjoy the silence
- quietly read books to children using puppets
- whisper if you speak
- study
- take notes in your notebook
- keep your feet off the furniture
- stay quiet in study areas
- use the reference librarians to help you find difficult-to-find materials on a given topic
- turn off cell phones

Don't:
- put books back on the shelf unless you placed a marker
- eat
- drink, not even water
- let your children run wild
- speak loudly
- write in books
- forget your library card
- keep a book past its due date when someone has placed it on hold

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I was in a study area of a college library once, sipping water from my water bottle, when someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to stop. It wasn't a librarian. I read the rules for that particular library and water was indeed permitted in certain student study areas. I was not out of line, but it got me thinking about the protocols we learn as children in a library. How do these affect your perspective and interactions with fellow library patrons?

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Psycho Dad

Did you start this thread because you were worried I was serious about masturbating in the bookstore?

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Jozrael

I've never heard of any of these. However, I see the reasoning behind the former and latter.

DaniGirl

Well its probably where the idea came from.

Punk.of.Ages

I don't go to libraries...

I have a really hard time keeping my mouth shut.

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Bear Cub

I get looks of horror. I'm not sure if it's the smell of the fart, or general repulsion towards the noise.

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Xerxys

^^

OK, but tobe serious, GG you forgot one more thing ...

Stop drawing attention to yourself ... - be descreet, I mean get up from your seat with ettiquete, I don't want to hear everytime you stand or sit OK dammit!!

FuglyStick

I don't see anything about wiping boogers inside of books then putting them back on the shelf. I'm in the clear!

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djtestudo

The library system I work for actually allows drinking and even eating within reason in certain areas.

Other than that, that's a good list of "dos and don'ts". Some of them might not be actual rules, but they are still a courtesy to the other patrons as well as the staff.

The latter is important, because library staff (especially, but not limited to, the circulation side) are just like any other retail workers. If you come to my desk with a sob story about how you couldn't return your items on time because your kid was sick and you had to spend all week in the hospital and then you accidentally left them in the car while it was in the shop and then you went on vacation and that's why you have a $75 fine and could I PLEASE waive even some of it, you better hope to hell you've treated us well if you want the same treatment.

We can't spit in your soup, but we can force you to pay what you owe and not get that new book you've had on order for months or that new DVD you've been waiting to see until you do

---------- Post added at 11:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 PM ----------

(DiamondbackOnline.com) Tracking the 'McKeldin Masturbator'

Good ol' College Park...

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snowy

I'm typing this from a computer in my university library's "Information Commons." There is a tiny sign right next to me that says "Drinks in Spill Proof Containers, No Food." I am drinking a coffee from a spill-proof container. It is delicious. There are also places in the library where eating is allowed. During Dead Week, nobody gives a shit because some people practically live here that week.

There are also areas in our library that allow speaking. Information Commons is one of them, the Collaborative Learning Center another. However, there are specified quiet floors and areas. I typically just make sure to pack my iPod.

I wouldn't say enjoy the silence. I would say enjoy the quiet. There is no way that a library can ever be truly silent.

Otherwise, there were many good items on your list, genuinegirly. I'm just glad someone else thinks about how to be considerate to others in a library.

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Zeraph

I miss libraries. I could literally live in a good one.

LordEden

Not on the list: Hitting on cute librarians, I'm in the clear. I don't know what it is, but it's something about the dress suit/sweater, long hair put up in a tight non-dressy bun (extra points for pencils in hair), small framed glasses, that look that says "You have an over-due book and you need to be punished" ... I'm checking out the local library today.

Seriously tho, I am going today because of this thread. I tend to own my books instead of renting them, but I'm poor and I need something to read.

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Leto

I once got kicked out of the university library because I set my coffee down on top of the card catalogue, while searching a book. I was one-handedly searching for both a pen and scrap of paper to write down the book number, and knocked over my coffee, spilling the contents not just into the open drawer that I had my other hand in holding the cards open, but also down between the other drawers, spoiling/wetting a everthing in the alphabet section that I was in. soon after that, a sign went up about no drinking in the library.

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snowy

You're showing your age, Leto! Our card catalog is long gone. This is why we have the spillproof signs near the computers.

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Lucifer

I'm guessing that handjobs are out, but oral sex would be kind of titillating

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CinnamonGirl

For whatever reason, I hold public libraries to different standards than University libraries. Not higher or lower, just...different.

One thing I really hate, though, is when people either a) listen to music on the computers without headphones, or b) are wearing headphones, but singing along.

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Hektore

On a related but separate note: our local libraries eliminated the physical card catalog, and the digital version isn't stored locally, so when the cable company took down their internet for service for a week there was no card catalog accessible from within the library. This was frustrating at the time, but I have since created a double sided 3x5 card with the Dewey Decimal System broken down to 10's place on it. Pretty handy.

So add "Get rid of the paper card catalog" to the "Don't" list.

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Fremen

If I may, speaking of libraries and librarians, a friend of mine (a car guy that has his shop next door to us) brought over one of his teenage friends to look at a car.
We got to talking and once I found out his last name (which is a bit unusual), I realized it was the same as my elementary school librarian's.
I asked him, and it turns out she's his grandmother and still teaches in a small town near here.

We used to sit at her feet and listen to her read to us about fried worms, runaway mice and big red dogs.

I thought she was old then, but she must've been only in her late 20's or early 30's.
It was good to hear she is still going strong.

She's the one that taught me such great respect for libraries and librarians.

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jewels

I love libraries! Like a bookstore, only cheaper. Something about the smell of stale ink on paper gets me going. Really.

I haven't heard this one. I always put books back where they belong, but maybe it's because I've known the system since elementary school ... ?

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Dammitall

I had the pleasure several years back of sitting next to a guy jerking off at a computer in a public library in Portland, OR. It's an experience I never, ever want to relive.

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