Q. I love the Surrey campus silent study room. The big window and bright walls make it a welcoming environment, rather than depressing hell hole of stress, and the carrels are big enough to spread out everything I need. However, I find that a lot of people using it don’t seem to know the meaning of the word “silent.” This may be due to there being only this room and a group study area in this library, and no middle ground “quiet study area” where a little bit of quiet conversation is okay. I understand the layout of this library doesn’t really lend itself to sectioning off a quiet study area, but would it be possible to have signs posted in the carrels of the silent study room, reminding people that it is, in fact, a SILENT study area, and what that means? (No talking, no phone calls, etc.) Some of us using the
silent study room need actual silence to work, not just mostly quiet.
A. Thank you for your suggestion and I’m very pleased you find our Silent Study room a welcoming place! And I am sorry to hear it is not completely silent. I’m afraid I don’t think additional signs will make any difference to people talking. I do try to monitor usage and will ask people to be silent or move, however whenever I check, the room is usually being used appropriately.
I have been monitoring more closely since your message and will continue to do so. You can also ask for assistance at the Loans or Reference Desk and we will ask people talking to either stop or relocate to another area of the Library.
We also have noise-cancelling headphones available from the Loans Desk, if that would help.
The large open space at the north end of the Library is designated Quiet, and that would be the appropriate place for people to have quiet conversations about assignments.
Regards,
Natalie
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Natalie Gick
Campus Librarian
Fraser Valley Real Estate Board Academic Library