ON WEDNESDAY morning, three friends and I went to the National Library Building in Victoria Street to do research for our university project. We went to the study room on the fifth floor but it was full, so the security guard on that level told us to go to B1 to do our research. Thus we took her advice and found a sofa in B1 to settle down in. It was 10am on a weekday morning, so there were many empty seats around.

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Ms Tan,which university are you from? NUS,SMU,NTU has their own libraries and are much better than NL.

XiaoWei.Int'l misses the point completely: it's not about campus libraries it's about disgusting customer service by a bullying librarian. I hope the library management will investigate and re-train the librarian concerned ... or fire her if she can't improve her pre-set ways.

Yan Wen & her friends must have met 'Conan the Librarian' on that fateful day!

I have given up on going to the McDonalds at Jurong East Central, after my son's violin classes on Saturday mornings, in spite of his love for the Happy Meal Breakfast sets.

This is because of the hordes of students who occupy whole tables with books & laptops for at least half the day & beyond. Their justification for camping in Mcs? One or 2 cups of Coke shared by 3 or 4 teenagers.

I believe the management must discourage students from occupying tables for such a long stretch of time. It can't be good for business. McDonalds has lost my son & me as customers. My son is starting to warm to KFC, Long John Silvers & the roti prata at the nearby coffee shop.

McDonalds looks no different from the Jurong Library, across the road; both have tables reserved or occupied by hordes of students.

That librarian has probably witnessed the typical behaviour of most students at the National Library, who reserve tables & chairs for hours with unattended bags & files, chatter incessantly & have picnics there.

Has anyone noticed that many of our public libraries are full of vacant tables, except for the fact that they are not really vacant?

There are school bags, umbrellas, files etc. used to reserve seats &, in fact, entire tables, for certain library users (mainly students) & their cronies. These people then take their own sweet time to browse & pick out the books they like.

Others, laden with many books & at times, with children in tow, then find no place to sit & read, because all the empty tables are, in reality, occupied ....... by bags, umbrellas & tissue paper packets

Hard to believe the librarian shouting to the writer and her friends without provocation or cause as alleged. Anyway I am fed up too with the hordes of students who occupies tables and seats meant for customers of a F&B outlet. Not trying to be uncaring to the needs of others but perhaps MD and others who premises are frequented by these students could implement a zone for their use and actively discourage studying in other non designated areas for the fair use of other paying customers?

#aholiab#3
Thank you for showing me the way home. I am zombied. This librarian must have got up from the wrong side of the bed of his/her partner does not acede to her love call? It is very rude of this stupid librarian. Must be sacked right away.

It's unfortunate if the letter writer did indeed encounter Conan the Librarian, but I agree with bt7844 that it does seem strange that a library staff would have shouted. Also, the study room was already full at 10am? I thought the National Library opens at 10. Are students that bereft of suitable study spaces on their own campuses? Maybe that's another issue worth looking into.

I notice that the Coffee Bean branch at Paragon has erected signs discouraging students from using their air-conditioned premises as a study centre. I notice that students love to congregate at such eateries to 'study' with friends, but usually end up chatting, surfing the net on their laptops, listening to their MP3 players or talking on their mobilephones.

When I was a teenage student, I studied in the school library, community centre or at home alone. Attempting to study in a group is akin to working in the production line of a cigarette factory, when one is trying to give up smoking.