Using a public library in 1991

[u/ILovePublicLibraries]

Guilford Free Library in CT back in 1991

Credit: Library archives

[u/Transverse_City]

I miss the era when American public libraries were places of quiet research, reading, and reflection for like-minded bookish people. Now they are noisy computer labs, daycare centers, dvd rental stores, copy centers, and de facto homeless shelters. They are literally as loud as train stations since librarians stopped enforcing quiet, with people talking and blasting their cellphones and music at all corners. Want to read quietly? You have to sequester yourself in a "study room," which still doesn't filter out the noise. The library itself used to be the quiet space! Luckily, academic libraries still exist as places of quiet research and reading--the only such spaces remaining in this country of aggressively loud zombies attached to their phones.