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Dear Editor,
Of course, I understand Dan Merica’s goal was to be funny in his opinion piece (“The many uses of a library cell phone booth”, Sept. 24th). However, I just wanted to clarify a few things about the booths.
First, they’re sound-reducing, not sound-proof, as Dan mentions. This is the reason the signs above the doors clearly state “Please speak softly & keep conversations short”. While the 30 dB noise reduction is the best of any phone booth available (NB: the company has installed these booths in the White House situation room), students disregarding the signage and speaking loudly inside should know their conversations will be overheard and they are disrupting others trying to study.
The booths were an innovation we discovered while trying to address the many ongoing noise complaints, an issue we worked on with SGA and my classes. We put signs throughout the building, implemented login-free “rat-chat” from the library’s main page so students could anonymously report those being loud, and implored the student body to help create a culture of quiet in the library. An overview of the noise issues and responses can be found in last year’s “14 Days to Have Your Say” blog:
http://blogsandwikis.bentley.edu/library/14days/
UMass-Amherst installed several of these cellphone booths in their library a few years ago, and ordered more last year to accommodate student demand. Harvard Business School also installed several this past spring, and when I visited and spoke with their construction manager, he said he was thrilled with how cost-effective these cellphone booths were. (We were able to purchase six of them for what it would have cost to construct one cellphone booth, with HVAC, etc.)
My goal – and the goal of all the staff – is to provide the best library experience anywhere. In fact, we have a Bentley Library User Experience (BLUE) group that meets regularly to explore and implement improvements. Please use the “Comments” link on the library’s website to share any ideas/suggestions you may have.
Thank you,
Phillip Knutel, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Academic Technology,
the Library, and Online Learning
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