[Publib] Background music

[Kevin Okelly]

As others have said, libraries are supposed to be places or repose and 
quiet, where people can get work done. It is hard enough to maintain quiet 
in a library without the library board itself deliberate sabotaging the 
effort.

One  person's delightful background music is another person's Hell.


Kevin O'Kelly
Reference and Cataloging Librarian
Somerville Public Library
79 Highland Ave.
Somerville, MA 02143
(617)-623-5000


-----Original Message-----
From: "K.G. Schneider" <kgs at bluehighways.com>
To: <publib at webjunction.org>
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 22:42:58 -0400
Subject: RE: [Publib] Background music

> I'd hate that - libraries are supposed to be places for quiet (I know,
> I
> know).  Cell phones, crying kids, noisy teens and Moms at storytime are
> bad
> enough - but music throughout the building all the time.   <<shudder>>
> 
> ——
> 
> Well, I must be a doughty ol' dame myself, because I *loathe*
> background
> music. 
> 
> I don't know this at all, this is hugely irresponsible conjecture...
> but
> it's 90 minutes til Friday and it's been a long day: I think people who
> want
> music bring their own (as someone else observed), and the rest of the
> world
> doesn't want it imposed on them. I was in one library with tinkly
> music, and
> it felt stagy... "look how cool we are." Oddly, my lasting memory of
> that
> library is how hard it was to find the new books. 
> 
> I sometimes (not too often) listen to music while I work, but even as a
> happy iPod owner, I don't subscribe to the notion that the world is
> better
> off with a soundtrack. Mostly, in fact, while exercising or doing
> chores I
> listen to NPR (live or podcasts), but in daily life I just walk around
> unplugged. I do sing on the road, now that I have one of those nifty
> ipod FM
> transmitters, and I am sure south Georgia is all the better for me
> bellowing
> my version of "Down to the River to Pray" while I zoomed home from a
> consult. But that doesn't mean I want the library to fill in the gaps
> for
> those times I am unplugged, and they are legion. 
> 
> Finally (winding up for the punch), I too have trouble hearing with
> background noise (a legacy of working with aircraft engines in my 20s),
> and
> it is not merely cumbersome but exhausting to try to hear someone
> against a
> noisy background. I don't want my ears to compete with Smooth Jazz
> while I'm
> trying to communicate.
> 
> Though it sounds "modern," I think this is a trend that is a third of a
> generation behind the times. 
> 
> Spend it on upgrading your wifi, or buying laptops for a
> laptop-checkout
> program, or goodness, buy a few more books. 
> 
> K.G. Schneider
> kgs at freerangelibrarian.com 
>  
> 
> 
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