Shhh...!!

Whatever happened to the idea that libraries were places of quiet? There's now a big table in the middle of my local library with about half a dozen computers on it, and invariably these are manned by kids loudly discussing with each other their latest exploits on whatever the game of the moment is. And then on my last visit there was a mother and toddler group being held in the children's section, and you can imagine the noise coming from that! Perhaps the old days, when you wouldn't dare speak in above a whisper for fear of being reprimanded by the librarian, were a bit draconian, but we now seem to have gone rather too far the other way.