Letters to the Editor | A lesson in library etiquette

A few weeks ago, I sat on a couch in the library basement reading while a couple a few feet away began munching loudly on two egg rolls, taking small pauses between bites to discuss both how the egg rolls tasted and how they compared to other egg rolls the couple had recently eaten. Once, in the basement of the Art Library, I sat at a cubicle when, a few cubicles away, a student’s cell phone trumpeted her customized ring. Apparently feeling it an appropriate time and place to do so, the student answered her phone and carried on a rather involved conversation. Another time, as I read at a computer, a couple across from me began shouting their French homework out loud, somehow not realizing that loud French is just as loud—if not louder—than loud English. When I asked them to be quieter, they looked at me as if I had asked them for a pedicure.

I don’t really know any better way of saying it. When you are in the library, shut up. I know it’s exciting being in college. You’re away from your parents for the first time and you feel free to challenge everything you were taught. Quietness in the library, though, is not something that needs to be challenged. It exists for a reason, like cleanliness in a kitchen or wetness on a waterslide. Many of us at Vassar go to the library with hopes of working, and while the building provides ample seating and plenty of books, the constant noise puts a damper on the endeavor.

Maybe it’s me and my ADD-addled brain, but I find it very hard to get work done while people less than five feet away from me can’t seem to get their voices below a modest clamor. Perhaps a few ground rules would help. For instance, when you enter the library, put your cell phone on vibrate. Period. I’m very happy you downloaded the theme from “The OC” as your ringtone, but in a study environment it loses a bit of its novelty. And if someone does call you, take the call outside. Do not take it in the library entryway, as I have seen more people do as the temperature has dropped. Suck it up, Mr. Popular. Buy a coat.

As for face-to-face conversations, I realize that a few areas of the library lend themselves to social interaction. I can forgive a few hushed exchanges. When you feel the need to regale your friends with an over-the-top production of the previous weekend’s misadventures, though, go somewhere else. Vassar provides numerous spaces for louder social forays, such as ACDC, the College Center, the Retreat, or, even better, your room. By all means, take your friends and continue the production there.

It’s a library, people, and I would hope that most of us have lived long enough to understand how it works. You walk in, you find your book, you sit down, and you shut up. And then you learn! That’s the magic of the library, but only if we all work together on making it a tranquil space where we can study. So please, for the sake of Vassar, shut up and let me read. I have a thesis to write.

—Patrick Murray ’06