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My first rude awakening was hearing the voices of little children singing merrily at the top of their voices on the ground floor of my neighbourhood library in Ottawa’s south end. This racket went on for a while, and upon inquiry I was told this was a program for pre-schoolers that runs a couple of hours a day. Maybe because they are little kids, the voices don’t grate on you, and after a while, they blend in.

What doesn’t easily blend in is the ruckus that sometimes erupts when the teenagers pour in after school. Teenagers are naturally loud anywhere they congregate, and when they are in groups of three or four studying together, it can get disturbingly noisy and off topic very quickly. But I don’t mind the student noise because I’d rather have them in the library trying to study, than getting into trouble in the streets. When it comes to noise, some adults are worse.

There was a day when four people planted themselves in the reading area and for close to an hour, engaged in a loud debate, oblivious of the disturbance they were causing. And no amount of shushing would stop them.

Most disconcerting of all, however, is the cell phone racket that goes on. The posted rules urge people to “set mobile devices to vibrate or mute,” but most don’t do it. Cell phones have become such an integral part of our lives, we can’t function without them. I understand that. But the way they go off in libraries, with people chatting away while others try to concentrate on their work, is a scandal. If people won’t shut down their phones in the library, you’d think they’d step outside to talk. But most people don’t. They carry on loudly right in the library, ignoring the effect on others. Library officials are very nice and helpful, but they are reluctant to intervene, one explaining that a certain amount of noise is acceptable. They only intervene when it becomes obnoxious.