BackTalk: The Cell Phone Police

Most of us can't imagine a time when we didn't have cell phones. We use them to stay connected, to take pictures, send text messages, check our email, and with the advent of smartphones and other handheld devices, increasingly we use them to do research.

Of course, we have all been the victims of the irritating cell phone user at one time or another, too: the twentysomething on the bus discussing his or her plans for the evening; the businessperson in the restaurant working loudly over lunch; the library patron, checking out a book while chatting away. That's not to mention the annoying cacophony of ringtones. For librarians, cell phones can be the bane of the workday. But can we really justify banning their use, as so many libraries now do?

Just because a patron is on a cell phone doesn't necessarily make that person insensitive to others' needs. This boils down to a concept that library leaders like Michael Stephens, professor of library and information science at Dominican University (and an LJ columnist), have long advocated: trust the user.

We understand that parents want to keep in touch with their children and that students today need their iPhones not just to chat but to work. Still, many libraries post aggressive signs around the library showing a cell phone with a big red X through it, an image that leaves librarians looking out of touch and cranky, two stereotypes we are supposedly anxious to leave behind.

So where is our happy medium? How should librarians deal with the cell phone? How do you juggle the studious, quiet atmosphere of the library while also keeping up with the times?

Using the web site SurveyMonkey, I recently conducted two surveys designed to examine the existing environment of cell phones in libraries. One survey was designed for library workers, one for library users. Each was brief, just six questions long, and asked both open-ended and multiple-choice questions about how individuals feel about cell phones—in particular, the monitoring of cell phone usage in libraries. Overwhelmingly, the results showed that users and librarians feel the need to control the behavior without banning the technology.

So what do the survey results tell us? “A good rule of thumb: if you wouldn't stop a face-to-face conversation between patrons, then you have no justification for stopping a technology-mediated conversation,” observed one library worker. “If you would stop a face-to-face conversation (e.g., in a Quiet Zone), then naturally cell phones would fall under the same policy.”

Library users voiced strikingly similar opinions. Users agreed that cell phone conversations should be kept to a minimum and should be conducted respectfully. Most respondents said they understood the need to monitor cell phone use in libraries but opposed banning their use outright. “Certainly, if I can use my phone to access the catalog, why ban its use altogether?” one library user noted. “It's more of a conduct or 'disruptive behavior' issue than anything.”

Library users said they would welcome a librarian intervening on their behalf if someone is being disruptive. They did not see the need to waste time and resources enforcing a blanket ban on cell phone usage.

Your library's needs may differ, but as cell phones become more sophisticated and more ingrained in daily life, now may be the time to reexamine your policy. That is, if you even have a policy.

Several respondents in the library workers survey claimed they were unsure if their library had a cell phone policy. One respondent even stated that some librarians enforce a no-cell-phone rule despite their library not having a no-cell-phone policy on the books. The lack of a policy is both frustrating and confusing for all. The best course of action is to have a policy and make it well known to your staff and your users.

Many libraries have already taken simple, progressive action toward the monitoring of cell phone use. At the Oak Park Public Library, IL, librarians have instituted a color-coded noise level system. Areas of the library marked green are noise/cell phone–friendly. Red is a quiet, study zone. The Skokie Public Library, IL, also has excellent signage to articulate its commonsense policy: “polite cell phone use permitted.”

These are both solid examples of how simple it can be for a library to be proactive in monitoring cell phone use. The best lesson: don't ignore the situation. A simple, fair, and visible position will help your library offer good service in a welcoming, progressive environment, as well as remove the unwritten, unwanted “cell phone police” from your job descriptions.