[Publib] Background music

[Neff, Joshua, JCL]

On one hand, one of the things I dislike about being in (and working in) libraries is the lack of background music. I love having music playing, and I dislike quiet (except at home, early in the morning and late at night).

On the other paw, I've worked at Borders Books, where there is always music playing--and it's rarely music I like, and all too frequently music that gets stuck in my head. If the background music is going to be Faux-Epic New Age music or Smooth Jazz or Elevator Muzak (and if you're a fan of any of those, I have nothing against that music per se, just ain't my cuppa), then I'd sooner have no music. And I'm positive that if the library had on my faves as background music, most patrons and staff would riot.

So, I think it's better to leave the music off and let the library's natural sweet sounds (babies screaming, children crying, teens laughing, parents yelling, adults chatting, computers beeping, printers whirring, cell phones ringing) be the sole soundscape. And as others have said, the people who *really* want to have background music playing will bring their own.


--Joshua M. Neff
Web Content Developer
Johnson County Library
(913)495-2449
neffj at jocolibrary.org 

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 9:43 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
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 
 


_______________________________________________
Publib mailing list
Publib at webjunction.org
http://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/publib