“Shhhh! Shhhh!”

The only sound more irksome than talking itself would be the irritating sound effects that people make to get someone else to quiet down. This is especially evident in Binghamton University’s libraries, places where most students essentially live during exams week.

People expect to go to the library for some quiet time, so that they can dig their noses into oversized textbooks and study in their caves of solitude, aka “the cubicles.” But despite the primary purpose, the library has become more than just a place for study. It’s now a place for people to take their obnoxiousness into a public setting in the form of “sleepers,” “creepers” and “noisemakers.”

“You snooze, you lose” was the message I got when I walked into the library during mid-terms week. An open seat was nearly impossible to find, which wouldn’t be a problem if everybody was using his or her place as an area to study, not sleep. There’s nothing more frustrating than circling around the library, trying to find a spot and seeing people bent over their work with their eyes closed or reclined in the armchairs.

If you feel your eyes starting to droop slightly, just go to sleep. It makes more sense to just wake up early the next day, refreshed from a night’s worth of sleep, and head out to the library early to secure a spot.

If you’re searching for even more irritation, feel free to drop by the Pods, the place where students use the computers to type up papers, stand in ridiculously long lines for double-sided printers, and … to creep on other people’s Facebook pages?

I like social networking as much as the next person, but not in a public setting where everyone around me could potentially see what I’m doing. While people are standing and waiting around with their heavy bags for a free computer, others are responding to “urgent” wall post messages and scrolling up and down the page, looking to see everyone’s status updates and relationship changes. Unless you have no kind of access to a computer, it’s best to just keep your creeping to yourself, on your own time, and let those who actually need the computer use it.

At least if you run into all of these problems, you get to rest securely in the knowledge that nothing worse could happen, right? Wrong. That’s when the whispering starts.

It’s okay once in a while, but there’s nothing worse than noise in a quiet study area. The entrance to the library has a large lounge and, even inside, there are places where people do group work together. Don’t bring your study session into a place where people actually try to get work done and force them to “shhhh!” you, disturbing even more people.

It is unfair for those who actually need to be in the library to be deprived of a spot just because someone feels like using it for purposes other than studying. It is disturbing to the people around who have important exams coming up and really need the time and space to get work done.

The library is not a second dorm room: Have respect for those around you.