A library in Australia has converted conference rooms into rumpus rooms — popular with teens who come to sing along with iPods, play games on iPads and watch pay TV.
The Campbelltown Library in Newton, a suburb of Adelaide, is hoping to attract more teens and make the library “less boring” by lifting the usual shsssh! and keeping conference rooms open to gadgets until 11 pm.
“I usually go to do research for school projects,” says Sam, 15. ” But I think it’s cool you can use technology and not be scared to make a little bit of noise.”
The picture accompanying the article shows one teen singing with an iPod, another using an iPad and a third in front of a huge TV screen in what looks like a hip rumpus room.
Library services manager Ursula Hickey said the library has become more popularity with teens since the new look launched in September.
“Teenagers can be noisy, they can watch Foxtel (pay TV) and listen to music or they can sit quietly and study,” she said. “It’s the type of thing a lot of libraries are making small moves towards.”
To me it sounds like a circle in hell, though in principle, the idea of having a room where you can sample audio books, music or movies at the library before checking them out would be a good one.
So I’m guessing the real advantage is for parents: let your kids be noisy around someone else.
Then you can head over to the hushed part of the library and flip through the latest issue of Oprah or something.
Should libraries get designated noise areas, especially for using their audio/video resources?
Source: Adelaide Now
