Po On Road Public Library — Attraction in Hong Kong

It saddened me further that more and more Po On Road Public Library users do not observe the rules or etiquettes.

On a Saturday afternoon a mother with her daughter came out of the activity room. They chatted and critised what had happened in the room, as they happily walked passing dozens of silent patrons sitting at the reading corner.

A man sitting beside me manipulated his rustling radio and gradually tuned it to higher and higher volume. He lamented the horse he bet had just lost at that race. Over another bench one man poking the horse-racing column of the newspaper with his fingers, complained that he lost because he followed suit of the guy standing next to him.

Not too far away two ladies resting on chairs of adult reading corner chatted over trivials as their daughters were running around and chasing each other.

Sitting one bench away a woman was taking custody of 5 copies of newspaper. She was reading one and securing 4 others for her immediate reading fun whenever she needed. She could also selectively share copies to her friends on the way to this library.

A devoted male staff clad in white and in his mid or late-fifties did patrol in between rows and columns of the reading corner, awakening those well slept readers to let go of the saliva-dampened newspaper. Another white-clad chubby staff only walked straight, to and fro along the corridor sparing even a single glance to any inappropriety at the reading corner.

At 17:15 on Nov 4 the serenity calmed the children's corner. Yet a woman chose to rest at the adults reading corner and let go a girl at age 3 or 4, presumably her daughter, yelling and playing around. Three library staff stationed at the entrance for covid-19 jabs censoring. The 4th staff inside the office was summoned to calm down the girl. The woman did not bother to take the girl outside of the library and responded, "It can't be helped. So what!"

Some people at the territory north to Hong Kong took it that library was somewhere for social gathering, was somewhere to exchange the schools' happenings, was somewhere to conduct Taobao handovers, was anywhere other than reading articles or newspaper. Many newly immigrated ladies still opine likewise.

Dr. Sara Baker once highlighted that self-control learnt during childhood will impact a more promising adulthood. Unfortunately some mothers yet have their own vested interests.

May the library use placard, serve verbal reminders, post library-users observations or otherwise to regulate the unbecoming annoyance. Perhaps sort of announcement after library...

Was nearby here and needed a place to study, so decided to come here. Came via the lift which was quite old but acceptable. I only used the study room which was fine - there are staff occasionally coming round to check if everything's okay, and the air-conditioning is acceptable. It is kept quiet and clean enough. The direction signs are ok, but I didn't seem to be able to find the toilet. There are also many better public libraries around here and Hong Kong in general, but a good place for when you can't be asked to go...

It is an old library reaching maximum servicing capacity. It needs an upgrade in servicing capacity. I went there wanting to use a computer for printing and scanning service in the early afternoon on a week day. They ran out of those computers which could provide printing and scanning even after I waited for some good half an hour. Also the staff there is not helpful. I said this because I contrast their service to Ping Shan Public Library where staff...