Library Etiquette – The Do’s and Don’ts

The library is that safe distraction-free haven you escape to because you lack the self-control to focus on studying at home, or your house currently resembles the Adam’s house making studying is simply impossible. Either way, exam period is the time when you find out where that building with all the books is. And in all likelihood, you spend more hours there than James Franco spent cutting off his arm*. In an effort to give an air of formality to the unspoken library etiquette code, Her Campus Exeter is providing you some of the vital Dos and Dont’s to aid your study and preserve the sanity of those around you at this very stressful time of year.

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DO – Put your phone on silent. And if the buzzing social bees amongst you think you can possibly, painfully stomach turning the vibrate off, do. Silent study gives new meaning to “hearing a pin drop” and while exam period should mean there’s less absolutely vital gossip of who-got-with-who, oh-my-god-know-she-didn’t to be passing on, bizarrely it doesn’t. So for you buzzing social bees, this equates to a buzzing phone that sounds like a herd of bees has found a way into the room. Don’t be that person.

DON’T – Be afraid to snapchat.  It’s light relief for you and all those around you watching you. This article can’t offer you in depth snapchat etiquette but what it will say is extend your snapchats beyond selfies of you in the exact same position at your desk in the library on the hour every hour. The background hasn’t changed. 

DO – Use highlighters, coloured gel pens, pictures and written rhymes if that’s your thing.  You need to remember CO – N = H20 so if making an achingly girly, colourful diagram in public is what transcends your 2:1 to the dizzy heights of a glorious First, suck up the shame and colour to your heart’s content. 

DON’T – Take your shoes off. It’s acceptable to make yourself comfortable in the library when you’re going to be spending, in all sad likelihood, the majority of your day there. But – and this particularly applies to boys wearing yesterday’s socks in a seat where someone has to sit opposite you – keep all footwear in place. It’s just not ok.

DO – Be quiet even if it’s not ‘Silent study’. Because in exam period, pretty much everywhere is silent study even if doesn’t have the label. Keep the level you talk at to a maximum loud whisper. If you feel like you’ve entered the fifth ‘Bourne Identity’ film and are a super stealthy spy to rival Matt Damon’s own, hiding from the bad guy round the corner, you’re speaking at exactly the level that you should be. Encourage your friends to do the same.

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DON’T – Get self conscious about making noise; it’s a fact of life that the more self conscious you are, the more noise you’ll make. Exhibit A: Opening a packet of crisps excruciatingly slowly. Exhibit B: Taking a slow motion bite of your apple to limit crunch. Exhibit C: Opening a can of Red Bull/Coke/Diet Coke/Monster as if tin hitting tin can be done in a subtle manner. These items will make noise regardless of how you open and/or consume them. And that’s OK. People may seem peeved at the disruption but in all likelihood, they’re peeved because they want a packet of crisps. Crunch to your heart’s content.

DO – Play your music. Cher, Britney, Justin Bieber or Bakermat. Whatever gets you through the day and the endless notes of lectures you didn’t make it to.

DON’T – You dare play it so loud the person next to you, let alone the whole room, can hear a beat. If they can decipher what song you’re listening to, you’re an awful person and should be physically removed from the room.**

DO – Glare at someone who is playing their music at the anti-social level described above. But do make it a polite glare that both passes the message along and ensures no one feels insulted. We’re British.

DON’T – PDA anywhere where there are other people present. The Forum is bad enough; the library is just not appropriate. Work is hard enough without couples left, right and centre pawing each other and providing unworkable sound effects to the room (as several friends have reported has happened in their study rooms). Keep it PG until the end of term when the library will be empty and you have to tick certain things off your bucket list before you graduate.

DO – Take up one desk/work area. And you enjoy that space. It’s yours. Your alarm was set earlier than the lark was singing, you discoverd that being an early bird didn’t help you catch any worms and you need three coffees (AMT, standard) before midday. You’re not enjoying the morning, so you enjoy that little bit of desk space you fought so hard for.

DON’T – Spread across into another’s work space with your endless sheets, files, books, laptop, iPad, laptop charger, phone charger, bag, second bag, et cetera. In all likelihood such extensive spreading is detrimental to your own revision as much as the revision of the people next to you. Fair enough if you need to take half your room to the library; it’s more than likely you’ll have an urge half way through the day to play SuDoku or Paint-by-Numbers. But keep it self-contained to your space.

DO – Get dressed for the library. While this should and is a fairly obvious one to the majority of the student population, there have definitely been a few who think it’s legitimate behaviour to rock up in onesies, and even worse, pyjamas. There’s being confident on campus and then there’s just being weird. Put your clothes on!

DON’T – Stare at people when they enter the room and proceed to spend a few minutes unpacking their belongings. You felt equally uncomfortable when you walked in and people did it to you; break the mould and maybe… Focus on your work instead? It’s just another person with more books and paper, arriving at the library to do some work. If it’s Ryan Gosling, stand and stare. It likely won’t be. So keep revising. You’re more likely to get a great job, disposable income to travel to Hollywood, bump into him on Sunset Boulevard and wow him with your knowledge of Freudian psychoanalysis applied to animal behaviours in the 21st century if you read the textbook now and get your degree. Instead of staring at each and every person who walks in the room as they unpack another laptop.

Realistically, you and others around you will at times fail to adhere to these unspoken rules of the library. Don’t make the failure feel even worse if they seem well aware of the etiquette they’re breaking. If they seem like a stand up guy or gal, they’ll correct their behaviour shortly. And if they insist on breaking the code, resort to the rule of polite British glaring to get the message across with you and your fellow revisers.

*It was 127

**This very important DON’T applies to all journeys you make on public transport. Live it. Learn it.

Photocredits: blogs.cf.ac.uk; sir-robert-macalpine.com; uniandi.com; telegraph.co.uk

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