Every Saturday morning, the Pudong New Area Library in Shanghai is a "battlefield" for Xiao Song (pseudonym) – in order to have a place in the library's 2,500 seats, she must line up in the queue at the entrance of the library at about 8:30, and after the official opening at 8:50, she will go straight to the third floor. "I also want to help my friends keep a seat," Xiao Song told reporters, she and her friends often come to the museum to study for themselves, taking turns to occupy seats for each other, "so as to save labor costs!" ”
In the queue at the entrance of the library, there was more than one Xiao Song who wanted to occupy the seat. On a review website, "go early on the weekend to occupy a seat" has become a consensus among many readers, and it is often "a certain library seat occupation guide" that appears on major social platforms. Recently, a foreign citizen expressed his doubts about the phenomenon of seat occupancy to the 12345 citizen service hotline. As an old reader of the Pudong Library, the frequent occupancy of the seats made him dissatisfied: "Many people came to the queue early in the morning, one person occupied several positions, and the companions did not appear for a long time, and later the readers who entered the library could only sit on the steps." Is that fair? Is the museum responsible? ”
△ On a social platform, some netizens posted the weekend entry of Pudong Library.
There are a lot of people occupying seats, and if I don't occupy them, there will be no seats
Occupying a seat is divided into two steps, first to "grab", and then to "occupy".
The experience of grabbing a position is a "morning" word. At 8:30 a.m. on December 28, when the reporter came to the Pudong Library at No. 88 Qiancheng Road, many readers were already waiting in line at the door to enter the library. Reader Mr. Zhang told reporters: "Everyone knows to come early and is used to it. After retirement, pudong library has become an important place for him to read books and newspapers, "there is no compulsory license here, nor does it need to make an appointment in advance, which is very convenient." About 20 minutes later, the library officially opened, and Mr. Zhang took a hurried step and began to move towards his seat.
Readers queuing up at the entrance of the Shanghai Library most want seats with sockets in the reading room. Although the number of scan codes has been made in advance, readers will not be unable to enter the library because of the flow restriction, but there are too few "superior seats" and readers can only compete with each other in the time of entering the library. Readers said, "The third floor Chinese the innermost position of the science and technology book reading room by the window and the socket, which is the most sought-after." ”
After grabbing a seat, it is necessary to ensure that the seat belongs to you stably.
After following the flow of people into the Pudong Library, the reporter found that most of the readers would first put their personal belongings on their seats, then get up to do some preparations, and usually return to their seats after a few minutes. However, more than half an hour later, the reporter observed that there was still no one in the seat occupied by school bags, water glasses and other items in the reading area on the third floor. "It's okay on weekdays (seat occupancy), there are things on the weekends, and there are more people who are not there." A reader who often comes to the library for self-study reflects. At 10:00 a.m., the scene in the Shanghai Library was similar, and the seats with sockets were almost all "famous flowers and masters". Ten minutes later, the reporter found an empty seat, but just about to sit down, he was reminded by a reader next to him that "there is someone here."
△ There were school bags and water glasses on the seats, but no one appeared for a long time.
Xiao Yi (pseudonym), a history student who often visits major libraries in Shanghai, was once a member of the "occupying army". "There are many people going to the library, especially in winter and summer, but most of the libraries in Shanghai that have some years have just a few sockets, and occasionally they have to leave the library to do something temporarily. Occasionally, there are companions from Xi, and they always want to sit together. Xiao Yi shared that in order to ensure seats, it is the safest to occupy seats," and there are many people occupying seats, and everyone does this." ”
Occupying a seat is not recommended, but how should the library manage it?
In line with the purpose of opening up public book resources to the greatest extent, Pudong Library has set a very low entry threshold, neither adopting the reservation system, nor requiring a reader's card to enter the reading room. As long as the number of people in the library does not exceed 5,000 instantaneously, readers can enter the library smoothly. "We receive an average of more than 4,000 readers a day, and after the epidemic, each reading table has been reduced from 6 chairs to 4 chairs, and the number of readers and seats is small, and the problem of occupying seats is particularly prominent." The relevant person in charge of the Reader Service Department of Pudong Library told reporters, "At present, we uniformly stipulate that the unused seats that are not used within half an hour of the opening of the library every day will be arranged by the staff to use other readers." ”
△ Reading instructions published in the Pudong Library.
However, most of the seat occupancy situations are different, and the management of the museum can only use dissuasion and consultation to deal with it after discovering it. However, even if it is already a "specific analysis of specific problems", contradictions are still often caused in the process of handling. "On a few occasions, the librarian saw that a reader hadn't been back for a long time, so he packed up his stuff and put it aside to vacate the seat. But after the reader returned, he said that he had been queuing up for a long time to go out to eat, or that the queue for buying coffee had delayed the time, and he was very angry that we moved his personal belongings", the relevant person in charge shared with reporters, "Because of the seating problem, there are often disputes between readers, and once it is not handled well, it will affect the reading environment of the entire library." ”
In recent years, many readers have reported to the Pudong Library on the occupation of seats, "The readers are very enthusiastic and have made many suggestions." For example, the reservation system is implemented, and 2500 places are open every day. Although it is true that it can alleviate the problem of seat grabbing and seat occupancy and optimize the experience of readers entering the library, in this way, more readers will be turned away. In addition, some readers suggested that Pudong Library control the flow of people by issuing "entrance tickets", but it is necessary to issue several "tickets" and a limited number of tickets for each, which has caused a lot of problems for the library. "It always seems that one end is pressed down, and the other end is jumping up again."
"We are sending patrol librarians and adding reminder cards to the reading table." For the problem of seat occupancy, Pudong Library still maintains a positive attitude and explores effective countermeasures, "On weekends and winter and summer vacations, we will also open all public spaces such as conference rooms for readers to use." ”