"We just expect them to be gentlemen,"says one,"and they rarely fail to rise to the demand."In such places will generally be found floors that conduce to stillness,rubber-tipped chairs,and low-voiced assistants."Our tiled floors are noisy--not our children,"confesses one librarian.The use of noiseless matting along aisles most travelled will be found helpful.But one library mentions the use of warning signs as being of assistance,this being a placard from the Roycroft Shop reading,"Be gentle and keep the voice low."In a library once visited were found no less than eighteen signs of admonition against dogs,hats,smoking,whispering,handling of books,etc.,etc.--the natural result being that,in their multiplicity,no one paid any attention to any of them.If a sign is deemed absolutely necessary,it should be removed after general attention his been called to it.The best managed libraries nowadays are those wherein warnings are conspicuous for their absence.Next to the officious human "dragon"that guards its portals,there is probably no one feature in all the great libraries of a western metropolis that causes so much caustic comment and rebellious criticism as that of an immense placard in its main reading room bearing in gigantic letters the command,SILENCE--this perpetual affront being found in a great reference library frequented only by scholarly patrons.Such a placard is as much out of place there as it would be in a school for deafmutes.
The solution of the whole problem of discipline generally resolves itself into the exercise of great tact,firmness,and,again,gentleness.There should be an indefinable something in the management of the library which will draw people in and an atmosphere most persuasive in keeping them there and making them long to return.A hard,imperious,domineering,or condescending spirit on the part of librarian and assistants often incites to rebellion or mutiny on the part of patrons.As opposed to this,there should ever be the spirit of quietude,as exemplified in the words previously quoted--"Be gentle and keep the voice low."
