Star Q
i. B4DL2E1
The library in SMK Sultan Abdul Samad, Petaling Jaya was one of my favourite haunts there (other than the canteen which served delicious and cheap food) I remember purposely going home late almost every day (except Fridays when I needed to go for Friday prayers) so that I could sit in the library enjoying its tranquility and conducive learning environment even though it was thronged by eagers studying boys! Yes, mine was a boys school, but we were so well-behaved that we kept quiet and read books or did our homework when in the school library; nothing else!
Almost thirty years on, albeit in a different school library and now seeing things not from the eyes of a student, the school library still looks like an ordinary school library. The only thing that has changed is the students!
For one, students don't really know how to contain their desire to talk to their friends when in the school library, and in the process, do so as if they are at the market where they speak at the top of their voices to be heard. The 'Please be Silent' posters are mere decorations on the wall and the constant reminders from teachers for them to keep quite are mere interruptions or interjections in the discourse of their conversation. And apparently, students nowadays have lost the art of whispering, which should be the only mode of communication (only when really, really necessary!) in the library!
Secondly, students don't come into the library to read any more. It seems they would rather come to the library to enjoy the coolness of the environment in the library due to the air-conditioners there. Apart from that they would rather, what else, talk!
Plus, they also enter the library to play the many games provided by the librarians. It is a sad thing though when students not only dash to the games corner instead of the book racks to grab a book and read; but in the midst of playing these games, they once again, make a lot of noise. It is a pity, such a noble gesture like providing games for students who go to the library is not fully utilized according to the purpose of the library which is mainly to read. I would think that language games like Scrabbles would be more suitable in the library rather than "Congkak" and "Tiddly-winks" or "Snakes and Ladders".
In a way language games like Scrabbles, if anything, not only helps to improve students' vocabulary but it also helps students (a small number of them at least) to maintain communication to a minimum. However, on the negative side, Scrabbles may not be so popular when put at the games corner in the library because students actually enter the school library to mostly do one thing; talk!
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