A Dull Roar

First of all, I have to say that my library is never a quiet place because, well, I work there. I never hesitate to throw back my head and laugh out loud if moved to do so and luckily for me, my librarian does too.  Secondly, we have at least 150-200 kids in here every morning before the bell rings.  They are waiting at the door for us as early as 7:30 and they trickle in when we open at 8:00 and completely engulf us by 8:45.  Some are checking out books, others are frantically finishing work, most are printing and the rest are here to check in with friends and TALK VERY LOUDLY until the bell rings.  We have classes in and out and moving through here continuously creating movement and flow of the noise.  We also have kids in here during their lunch period.  We used to let them eat in here but because they are kids and therefore slobs, that stopped by the end of the first marking period.  We can still get quite the crowd in here and the cacophony created is amazing.  The noise just surrounds you, it envelops you, it swarms over and under and through you and you get lost in a mindless buzz invading your brain.  And then, every now and then, it goes quiet.  You can hear the scratch of a pen over paper or the printer slowly grinding up for the next page. Or even better, snatches of whispered conversations from the back.  “….I told her I would….”, “He better not cuz…..”.   

A lot of the noise I hear is swearing.  Teenage swearing which is overdone and therefore ineffective for the most part.  I guess as an adult we learn to use it for emphasis or in my case, with beer.   The potty-est mouths of all come from our table of boys playing grown up Pokémon.  Magic? Magik?  However it is spelled, it brings out the longshoremen in these kids.  I actually get to tell people to watch their mouths.   If that isn’t irony, I am not sure what is.

Where can I get one of these?!

Oh, the technology!  Everyone is beeping and buzzing and tweeting and ringing.  They are listening to music so loudly I can hear it when they pass.  Forget Spanish, these kids need to learn ASL because none of them are going to be able to hear after age 40.

When caught in the tornado of noise and movement, conversations get started and end abruptly.  Sometimes we remember to pick the thread back up and continue with it, sometimes we forget.  Today’s involved a mom who came in and asked that we stop checking books out to her son, he is reading too much.  I got interrupted at that point and left thinking what a mean mom she was but apparently he is reading rather than doing any of his homework, so I am glad I picked that conversation thread back up before I started openly condemning her.  We also have coffee in our break room and teachers stream back and forth throughout the day and deposit words of stress or wisdom or “Wait til you hear this!” This definitely adds to the noise and fragmented conversations throughout the day.

This is a different environment from the very quiet library I worked in before and it took me some time to get used to the buzz, the business, the constant movement.  I told a mom today that it probably took me two weeks to stop getting annoyed at being interrupted constantly to realize that those interruptions were really the bulk of my job.    Now those interruptions have names and I know what classes they are taking, what they are reading, if they are having a good day or a bad day.   I get to encourage and admonish from a place called concerned adult rather than mom, and it is fun.  They tell me about their weekends and their classes and their lives and I love it.  One of my interruption's mom grew up in Buffalo!  We now bond over Weber's mustard and Bison chip dip.  I end up taking some of their heartache on, I just can’t help it.  These are good kids and they remind me that being a teenager is hard work in addition to being self-centered and self-absorbed.  And loud.  Really, really loud.

I think that the days of quiet libraries are definitely coming to an end. Hushing librarians and quiet study turning into urban legends.  I sometimes wish it wasn't always so loud, but given the choice over shushed and sterile or dynamic and vibrant, well, bring on da noise!