One of my Colville correspondents, Lan Hellie, concluded a recent email with the observation that libraries are noisier places today than they used be.

He didn't offer a judgment about that. Just stated it as fact.

I suspect it is true, and that no one in charge of a contemporary library would have it any other way.

It has been a long time since the exciting enterprise of connecting people with information and ideas was considered an undertaking that must be conducted in silence. (If that was ever true.)

But it reminded me of a story.

Before I met my wife, back when she was a freshly minted reference librarian at the main branch of the Memphis Public Library system, she worked in the arts and culture department. They played music in that part of the building.

One regular did not like that. He complained.

I can't remember how this played itself out. But I do remember the name of the library user: Shelby Foote.

You might remember him as a star of the PBS blockbuster series, "The Civil War."

I always loved the idea of that late author grumbling about the library's music in his signature accent.

Everybody has had a parent say "Turn that down!"

But not everyone has heard that from a voice destined to become an American treasure.

---

---