Sharon,
You could consider providing a jar of disposable earplugs for the patrons who are bothered by the conversations.
Some other thoughts:
1. Ask the callers to answer the call just long enough to ask the other person to text message instead.
2. Some of the other patrons may consider the situation an opportunity for free competitive intelligence.
3. The situation is ubiquitous. Some of the patrons who are not on the phone may be able to tune out the conversations, as they do in the other settings of their lives.
Priscilla M. Streightoff
Law Librarian
Clark, Thomas & Winters,
A Professional Corporation
300 West 6th Street, Suite 1500
Austin, Texas 78701-3902
Phone : (512) 472-8800 x1218
Fax : (512) 474-1129 ATTN: P. Streightoff
Email : pms@ctw.com
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This transmittal, including attachments, if any, is intended for a
particular addressee (s), and may contain confidential and privileged information. If it is not clear
that you are the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this transmittal
in error; any review, disclosure, copying, distribution, dissemination or use of the contents of this
information is prohibited. If you suspect you have received this transmittal in error, please notify
me immediately by telephone at (512-472-8800, ext. 1218) or by reply email to pms@ctw.com,
and delete the transmittal and any attachments, and all copies of the original message.
>>> "Sharon Wayland" <SWayland@TarrantCounty.com> 8/31/2007 10:33 AM >>>
I know this has been discussed before but our problem with cellphone users has become increasingly worse and I am wondering if others are having the same difficulties. Fort Worth sits on top of a huge natural gas reserve and so our library (and the entire courthouse for that matter) has very recently been overrun by people doing oil and gas research. They talk on their cellphones incessantly and no amount of warning and signposting has seemed to help. We used to allow them to keep their phones turned on in vibrate mode but the phone conversations became so loud and annoying, we recently posted signs tellling them to shut them off completely. Now we are fighting with them all day long to get them to KEEP them turned off. They are usually cooperative about turning them off but almost invariably, end up turning them back on, sometimes within just a few minutes. I am not talking about one or two isolated cases but more like dozens every day.
What do you do when you have a large number of patrons who abuse the rules constantly? This is public library and I hesitate to start banning patrons.
Sharon Wayland
Tarrant County Law Library
100 W. Weatherford, Rm. 420
Fort Worth, TX 76196-0800
817-212-7228
Fax 817-884-1509
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:47:00 PST