Shhhh, I'm Trying to Study

Imagine that you have a big test tomorrow and must do well on it to get an A in the class. Furthermore, it is Thursday night and your roommates do not have Friday classes. You could be the party pooper and ask them to be calm, or you could use what the university has provided, the library. (As we all know the library is supposedly a quiet place where studying is a top priority.) You get there, sit down, and start in for a long night of studying. Suddenly, your silent haven is interrupted by ringing cell phones, loud conversations, and groups studying in the middle of the carrels instead of in study rooms. What was thought to be a place of refuge from a loud, distracting apartment or dorm has become even worse.

Talking in the library goes against social standards and is inconsiderate. I first must mention that everyone, even I, am at fault for this. However, it is the people who are not aware of their wicked behaviors who are the problem. In the UNCW library there are areas that everyone knows are going to be louder than others, places where talking is accepted. These include the coffee shop, computers, front lobby, stair cases, and group study rooms and tables. It has been preached since elementary school that the library is a quiet place where whispers and silence are the only acceptable voices. Accordingly, on a busy night, lots of people talking quietly are going to cause the library to be louder than normal. Yet, when there is an average crowd and room for people to spread out, the ‘silence is golden’ rule must apply.

The worst abusers of this are the cell phoners. They do not use silent or vibrate, and are often found away from their desk while their phone rings and rings. Of course no one is going to touch it, we all must sit there and take it. If they do answer you can bet they will not get up or say, “I’m in the library, let me call you right back.” NO NO. This group will, at regular volume, carry on a conversation about who knows what. At this point it would be easy to stereotype, but men are just as guilty as women.

Then there are the ones who carry on normal conversations in the middle of a group of desks as if no one is trying to study. It would be easy for them to walk to one of the aforementioned areas or simply whisper. I know that when I see a friend I say hi, but I make my best effort to be considerate of other studiers. By all means, please have a brief conversation in the library, but there is no reason to speak like you’re at a rock concert.

The thing about studying is that you get into a groove, and when the loud people come along it interrupts your thought process or forces you to change locations. Either way, your overall production declines. Some may counter with the presence of a silent room, which is great except for when it’s full. Essentially, why do people think that because they are no longer in grammar school that the international law of silence in the library does not apply? When I studied in Fiji they enforced this rule to the extent of fining students for loud voices and ringing cell phones. UNCW is better than this, and it seems inordinate that out of all the nuisances in the world this one bothers me the most.