Back log

I hadn't transcribed observations from the past two weeks. From the week of the 2oth:

10/20/08
4:35
I managed to leave work a little early today, so I can get a look at the library a little bit before rush hour. The hours are very limited here: M 'till 9, T, W "till 6, TH 'till 9, FRI 'till 6.

The readings for this week havr focused on territoriality, privacy, and social interaction.

First Impression: the crowd is a little younger today.

-At the low, kid-sized chair next to the Test Prep shelf, a woman no older than 25 was leafing through magazines.

-I'm at the table nearest the librarian's desk.

-behind me, a yound male is studying for the LSAT.

4:40
-two middle-aged white men walk in and spread out. Both [are] kind of scruffy.

-a man 30ish is reading the Herald next to the fireplace to my right.

-a couple, 40s-50s entered and [are] perusing the new book rack together.

-I'll try a diagram of the space.

-It'll have to be bigger next time.

4:55
-Checking [the] browser history on one of the computers:

Most visited:
SOMERVILLE LIBRARY
MYSPACE
FEDERAL STUDENT AID
GMAIL

Also visited:
CNN.COM
HUFFINGTON POST
AOL.COM
YAHOO.COM
POLITICO.COM

5:01
I realize I left my phone at the computer. I walk over to get it, smile at the woman on the computer, who smiles back. "Your phone...I just noticed it..."

-The crowd is still relatively young.

-The same librarian from the two last times.

-The people around me have left.

5:14
-The place has really emptied out.

5:25
All the computers are taken. A few people are sitting & reading.

-I'm at a bit of a loss. I'll have to work out a questionnaire for Thursday, maybe talk to some people.

From 10-27-08

10:27 8:27
-Today I'm here a little later. It's all men here. Including myself and the two librarians, 6 total. The patrons are all 30+. A white-haired man is reading the New York Times where I usually sit. The "best" computers are taken: ie. You don't have your back to the main entrance.

-A mother and small child (no more than five) enters. I'm at the the far end of the building, and the toddler's babbling cuts through. She is shushed twoce by her mother.

-At the back of the library, by the science fiction and romance section (yes, they are adjacent), someone left a Mad Magazine open to a two page spread parodying mixed-martial arts. Looks like there's a new generation of talented renderers at the publication.

-The librarian has a hushed conversation with the toddler about Halloween. They were coming up from downstairs, I think.

-I'd intended to include more physical description of the space:
Outside, the library is set back from the street about 30 feet. The concrete entry walk is flanked by well-maintained but generic landscaping enclosed by 36"high wrought-iron fences (newer). The massive double doors are framed by a classical pediment supported by fluted IONIC columns, a pair.The same columns are on the inside, non-fluted, in wood. There are stone lamps on the pediment and an arched window above the door. The stone seems to be limestone, surrounded by thin-coursed (Roman?) bricks of a tan sandy tone. The facade is "one story," in the classical architectural language, though the building inside is two stories, with a basement.

-There are nine granite steps leading up to the doors, with no intermediary landing. The stairs are about 10' wide and flanked by lamp posts. An American flag is hung from a flagpole over the door.

-The double doors are solid wood, about 36" wide and 8' tall each, or taller. Two panels and a single light at the top, higher than any person could see out. They are stained a lighter color, perhaps they are oak. They open outward. Today the weather is nice and one is propped open.

-The vestibule is about 10' by 15.' On the left, stairs curve downward, to the right, they curve up to a landing over your head, and then follow the curve of the lower stairs up to the second floor. The stairs are of a dark, fine-grained wood. And creaky. The robust newels have a spiral (Solomonic?) pattern carved in to them.

-To the left is a community message board. Ahead is double glass doors, solid wood frames, over 7-8 feet tall, stained dark, flanked by side-lights. A glass transom finished out at about 10 feet over head.

-An 8-1/2 by 11 sheet printed out from a PC says "Please turn off your cell phones" in a font that fills the page. On the right-hand door, a faded, neatly lettered hand-written note says "pull."

-The central [hall] I described a little bit earlier. It is a square enclosure framed by 10' ionic columns and pilasters of dark wood. They support an intricately detailed plaster entabulature (some peopl just call these "mouldings," but I see a three-part system of mouldings in the classical order: architrave/ frieze/cornice). the architrave is painted a neutral beige. the rest is painted white with brass-colored accents. A large rossette in the ceiling surrounds a brass chandelier that looks more modern. There appears to be empty sockets for bare light bulbs, a la Grand Central. The floor is largely square white tiles with green tiles forming a Grecian motif around the edges.

-Time to go.

A word on Acoustic Design

Apropos our discussion on soundscapes Wednesday night, I had observed that there is a slightly counter-intuitive aspect to the libraries acoustic environment. If you know the first thing about acoustic design - and that's all I know -you know that soft, faceted surfaces absorb sound. Thus the foam egg-crate walls in recording studios. The less corners or facets on a wall, the better sound is projected. Thus a band shell. The library is a loud building. The plan of the main floor is typically Beaux-Arts: one large space divided into three bays arranged around a rectangular central hall. The floor in the central hall is tile. Other floors are hardwood, no carpeting. On top of that, each of the three bays is an apsidal hall - meaning in plan, they terminate in a semi-circle. There is a lot of lovely woodwork, but it accounts for only a small portion of the wall surface. Most of the walls are hard, smooth plaster. The tall windows, I'm assuming, also provide plenty of smooth, hard surface area for sound to bounce off.

So you can hear sounds from the other side of the library as if they were happening next to you; the sound of a mouse click or someone adjusting themselves in their chair. A conversation at normal interior volume would seem incredibly obnoxious to most people. I'm accustomed to libraries being sound-deadening spaces: acoustic tile on the ceilings, carpets throughout. Perhaps the fact that this is a sound-amplifying space forces people to regulate themselves in a way a quieter, more absorptive room would not. Conversations that occured were in a lowered voice, and people walk gingerly around the space. The acoustic design, intentionally or not, is very effective at keeping people quiet. The question is: what are the implications of the distinction between regulating your behavior based on cultural norms and regulating your behavior based on the physical characteristics of a space?

Monday Evening at the library

What follows is a transcription of what I jotted down in a notebook over the course of an hour. I tried to maintain a spirit of open, receptive observation, as I'm not going in with any strong hypotheses in mind:

10-6-08
5:24 PM

I am immediately self-conscious.

The clop of my shoes - rubber soled they may be - is the loudest sound in here. There is [the] white noise of the ventilation system and some kind of mechanical whirring on top of that, but both are hardly noticable. Every sound the librarian makes - moving her chair, checking out a book (beep - tear) echoes throughout the whole building. There are no carpets. The central hall has a tile floor and the rest of the building has hardwood floors.

I sat down next to an eccentric-looking middle-aged man reading the Herald. The librarian looks like a librarian.

5:33

There are 9 people on the main floor actively using the library. 3 of them are wearing headphones. Others are coming and going.

Clop. Clop. Whirr. Creak.

The sun is setting already and the light is softening. Coughing. Rustling of newspapers.

Dorm-room-quality furniture.

One man in headphones is sleeping in the back.

It is slightly below room temperature and dry.

The ceilings are in the neighborhood of 14'

5:44

The one eccentric middle-aged man has been replaced by another, who sniffles as he reads the same Herald. Another middle-aged man reads the Globe on a couch in front of the fireplace.

Steady stream of people dropping things off.

The man reading the Herald has a pen in his hand and has on the table next to him 2 DVD's and a Novel: "Reign Over Me," "Waitress," and "Phantom Prey," by John Sandford.

The man by the fireplace stopped by just long enough to thumb through the paper and is now leaving.

5:50

This has been a long 25 minutes. Herald man leaves.

I go to the computer. The fonts on the screen are gigantic. Why, yes there is p*rn in the history from today. A sampling (at random):
-Craig's List
-NYC Voter Assistance Commission
-Dutch News
-MySpace
-Port Authority of New York
-Fox News: Global Poll finds Obama Preferred in all Countries but U.S.

Most visited today:
-Somerville Public Library
-GMail
-MySpace
-Craig's List
-Yahoo!
-MSN
-Stuff you Wanted - The Samurai DVD Store

Events today, 10-6:
-3pm - Spider Boxes
-6pm - Learn English
-6:30 - Needlework Group
-7:15 - Learn English
10-7
-11am - Story Time

6pm

I am asked for the machine.

Grandpa is here with his 2 granddaughters at my table. He is thumbing through the Globe while they do their thing.

That computer had its back to the door. Can I check another one [?]

Grandpa was kind enough to put the paper back.

6:04

There are 5 people actively using the library. All are adult males.

It's a Carnegie Library. Maybe your town has one.

6:12

It's thinned out. Only 3 people (men) seated, including me.

6:15

It's getting darker out and colder in here. Let's see where the bathroom is.

The children's room is downstairs. To get to the bathroom, you need to pass through it. It's a basement with murals painted on brick walls. The 2 ladies in the needlework group are down there. It's musty. The bathroom is accessed through a staff area where the door is ajar. The bathroom is out of order. The stairs are worn and creaky.

I went upstairs. It is one large room with a stage against the back wall and stacks on either side of a central seating area. It is also musty and the paint on the ceiling is peeling. There is 60's-style oak-veneer panelling on the walls.

I'm really thirsty and ready to go. There is no water fountain.

Welcome.

"What's a library, dad?"
"Oh, it's just a place where homeless people come to shave and go BM."
- Chris and Peter Griffin in Family Guy

I'll be looking at my local library, a dowdy presence just down the street from Davis Square in Somerville. I'm not sure what I'll find, but I'm curious to see how people use this bastion of old-fashioned public service in an age of instant information access and an eroding public realm.