Would you be quiet, please.

Books "The library last year decided to let the undergraduate masses into the reading rooms. On the face of it, a good idea. The British Library is a national collection funded by taxes, so why should its material be limited to a small band of researchers? But the past 12 months have witnessed a catastrophic collapse in its working environment. The studied calm of the reading room has given way to a hum of mobile phone ringtones, chit-chat and pubescent histrionics. It is difficult to get any work done. As one letter of discontent to Brindley puts it: "Many new readers are simply idling away the hours in the library in time-honoured undergraduate fashion, when one of the great characteristics of the British Library used to be a sense of communal hard work and endeavour by professionals of all ages." -- Tristram Hunt in The Guardian

I haven't obviously been to the reading room so I can't comment on the accuracy of the article, however, based on experience there is one item I really can agree with. Libraries are supposed to be a place for quiet and learning. If there's too much noise that studying becomes impossible, something has definitely gone wrong. One regular reader will be pleased to know that I actually asked someone to talk a bit more quietly at university last week. You know what happened? They apologised then carried on exactly the way they had before...