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This week is National Library Week, and to celebrate, Zief Library will serve ice cream to the entire USF law school community on the afternoon of Thursday, April 15.  Just in time for National Library Week, the NYT Complaint Box laments the current state of library noise.  Sung Woo asks, "When did libraries become a cacophonous combination of cafe, video store, music store, computer lab and playground?"  I like quiet.  But today's public libraries play so many different roles in patrons' lives - assisting with job searches, medical research, computer skills, literacy, and unfortunately, serving as a last-ditch child care center (even though it is not safe to leave young children unattended in a public library).  It's hard to imagine how a smaller branch library playing all of these different roles can remain an oasis of peace, calm, and silence.  And there are some hidden benefits to a noisier library.  I was browsing the shelves at the 10th Avenue SFPL branch a few weeks ago when an elderly woman came up to me and initiated a delightful conversation about Swedish mystery writers, recommending several great books that I hadn't read yet.  We weren't the noisiest people in the library by any stretch, and it was nice that two bibliophiles could have a somewhat lengthy exchange about the books we loved without being shushed.  Sometimes, more learning and valuable information exchanges happen in libraries where there is a fairly permissive attitude about noise.

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