[Publib] Background music in libraries (and elsewhere)

[Margaret Neill]

I have been reduced to catalog shopping during the Christmas season (if
I head 'Holly, Jolly Christmas' one more time...) and I was nearly
reduced to insanity after co-workers began playing Christmas carols in
our office. While I like the idea of soothing music, the fact is, for my
library at least, it would simply mean 'screaming children and
cell-phone ringers set to the tune of Beethoven's fifth'. A good idea,
perhaps, for a small, quiet library, but for larger, noisier ones, it
would just be one more noise for people in the reading room to complain
about. 

 

I do applaud people, however, for trying to think outside the box! 

 

Margaret M. Neill, M.S.L.I.S. 

Operations Librarian

Thomas Branigan Memorial Library

200 E. Picacho Ave. 

Las Cruces, NM 88001

Office: (505) 528-4043

Fax: (505) 528-4030

mneill at las-cruces.org

 

"Everyone who knows how to read has it in their power to magnify
themselves, multiple the ways in which they exist, to make their life
full, significant, and interesting."
- Aldous Huxley 

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Linda Ballard
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 11:04 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Background music in libraries (and elsewhere)

 

As Karen said "You can bring your own noise to the library....but you
can't bring quiet."   That is it in a nutshell.  Some people are driven
completely out of shopping areas from October to January by non-stop
renditions of "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Have a Jolly, Holly
Christmas."  My mother's retirement home has background music in the
common areas and I've had "April Love" stuck in my head for about a
week.  Do you really want to drive away a significant number of people
who don't share your taste in music?  "Surplus" money?  Buy some CDs for
the collection!

 

Linda V. Ballard

Director, University City Public Library

6701 Delmar Blvd.

University City MO 63130

314.727.3150; fax, 314.727.6005

 

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