'The truth is, libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy and community.”
Paula Poundstone, the American comic, author, actress amongst other things, colourfully nailed it.
So did Irish politico Timothy Healy. 'Libraries are really very noisy places,” he observed. 'On their shelves we hear the captured voices of the centuries-old conversation that makes up our civilization.”
His metaphor was from another time, when libraries were soulless sanctuaries of silence – the only noise being pages turning, pencils scratching and minds creaking under the strain of information overload.
But times have changed, and in the past 20 years, so too has library culture according to Joanna Thomas, custodian of the city's collection of books and information and Tauranga City Council's manager of libraries.
'The biggest change for public libraries is they are now social places that host group activities,” she says.
'If you look around at the people using computers or reading books, they are often in twos and threes. There is more noise and people stay longer.”
And that's what has upset some traditionalists. 'It has become very difficult to concentrate on what I am reading and writing,' complained one library user. The killjoy was grinching about what he considered to be 'ridiculous child-entertainment music and movement classes” in the children's section of the library.
'It is disruptive and I have spoken with others who are clearly annoyed at the noise levels. I believe libraries are supposed to be quiet environments for people to enjoy books. They are not kindergartens or crèches.”
The complainant was not from a Tauranga library, but easily could have been. There's a Kids Book Club and Tweens Book Club at our city's four libraries, where children between six and 14 are actively encouraged to chat about books and meet new friends. And they can't do that in a vacuum.
There's Code Club – fun, noisy projects teaching kids how to programme their own stories, games and animations. And there's Toddler Time – 'a fun, free programme featuring dance, songs, finger and action rhymes, stories and movement”.
These sessions are designed especially for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers – all, understandably, with absolutely no concept of 'quiet please.”
'Library architecture 20 years ago was more for storing books and individual work,” says Joanna. 'Now organised activities for children have become part of the everyday mix at libraries. Toddlers and babies are going to make noise, and stories and songs engage them. School groups perform plays and listen to stories and presentations.
'Spending time in the library is a social activity for kids - talking to friends or family about what they find, and playing games etc. Laughter from play is good noise and people expect that in the children's area. Being a vibrant place with a variety of activities is what attracts our young readers.”
Public libraries aren't just castles of tissue and ink. 'Public libraries are also places where people can use or experience technologies they otherwise wouldn't have.
'Technology has become part of the service people rely on when they visit a library.” It's probably why public libraries have become increasingly popular with students.
So creating both quiet and noisy spaces is the new challenge for libraries. Rotorua has done this in its new library with a quiet room on the third floor away from the children's activities. Tauranga also has tried to replicate this at Greerton Library.
'It's always a bustling place, but there is a room at the back of the library where people can study.” Joanna says nowadays, libraries that have more space and are better designed make it easier for all users to get along.
Alternatively, combining a library with a community centre or other service works well too. 'At Papamoa Community Centre, the noisy children's activities can be held in a separate room and still be combined with a family library visit.”
Even with the evolution of the library experience, 'good noise” is obviously well-managed at the city's libraries. 'We don't get many complaints about noise levels,” says Joanna. 'Only a couple per year at each library.”
It's timely to mention the golfer and lawyer who went on to become the most powerful man in the world, and his wisdom on children and libraries.
Former US president Barack Obama, who was in New Zealand last week, said: 'At the moment we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better. It's an enormous force for good.”
Talking libraries, did you know that a librocubicularist is someone who reads in bed, and that abibliophobia is a fear of running out of reading material?