Musing Monday...and Why I Love Emily Post.

Let's check out this week's question from Rebecca at Just one more page...

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about library etiquette…

For the regular library patrons among us: do you have your own idea of what constitutes proper library etiquette? Is there anything you always try to do? Anything you hate when others do?
Well, I am not sure that I can claim to be a 'regular' library patron. I think of myself more as a re-discovering irregular patron. Usually, I go online, look for a book that never seems to be at my branch, requiring me to put it on hold. It comes in, they call, I go pick it up, attempting, often unsuccessfully, to ignore the books for sale just outside their door as I get off the elevator.
I have no business borrowing library books, with all my TBR books, let alone buying more while I am there.

So my point is...and I do have one...is that I don't usually go browsing around the library. I am in, check out, I am out of there. Just too, too many temptations in that place. Not a lot of time to observe etiquette. Also, I have to limit my library exposure because if I start wandering the shelves, I find myself straightening them and fixing misplaced books and such. It is a little weird, but some people are so careless...and I have a wee touch of OCD.

Now...I do admit I have recently stayed around a bit on a few occasions. I was using their Wi-fi. It is nice that libraries have not only books, copies of the New Yorker I am too cheap to buy just to look at the cartoons, but now they also have free Wi-Fi. Of course, so does Borders and they sell tea and cookies too! But I digress.

I will not get into my iTouch wi-fi issues, but let me just say I am always in search of a nice hotspot nearby. And while I was there, because I am a bit of a fussbudget and on my way to becoming one of those nasty old ladies, always complaining about things, in my short visits I have noticed a few things that I consider poor behavior. I hate when parents do not control their children and let them become an annoyance to other people. That applies to all public places. I do not believe the library is a day care center or that we, the patrons or the librarians, are suppose to be sure other peoples kids are not climbing the book stacks just to see if they can. I also do not think the librarians are suppose to clean up after you. If you take something off a shelf, put it back. Throw your trash out, don't leave it on a table..ow worse, the floor. Bottom line, just leave things as good or better than you found them. Be considerate of other people around you and leave things in a nice condition. Is that too much to ask?

Again, that applies everywhere. Maybe I just think that people that use the library, and therefore should have a fondness for books, should be held to a higher standard than non-readers. Or it could just be that old lady thing taking me over.