Tonbridge Library Cafe....

There's a good comment on the Guardian web site today about how the British Library has become a trendy place to hang out and order a cappucino. Once the haunt of 'mad old women' and only very serious academic types the recently changed admissions policy has made it the undergraduate place to be. So much so that post graduates with real reasearch to do are finding it increasingly difficult to get a seat. Tonbridge blog wonders whether Kent County Council could do the same with Tonbridge Central Library. It already has computer terminals upstairs in the reference library, which always seems busy with students from West Kent College and elsewhere clicking and tapping away. (I remember when you could hear a pin drop in a library, instead of this racket!) There are cds and dvds for sale and for hire downstairs, they sell cards, keyrings and other gifts, there are even some books in there somewhere! So come on then KCC why not a little cafe to make it a trendy teenage hang out joint. It may stop a few of them from becoming hooked on alcopops and other intoxicating substances; they might even read a few books in between gigling and rabbiting on about who they fancy and which disco rave thingies are in at the moment, or how many aliens they've maimed playing Halo 3, or whether this Nokia has more mega pixels than that Sony Erickson (or whatever young folk talk about these days) Or should libraries just continue to be boring places to sit quietly sifting through old volumes of Charles Dickens?...