Escape from Salisbury
How a College Principal’s dirty trick was foiled by a former acquaintance who broke a Golden Rule
It was the first thing you saw when you walked into the library at Salisbury College of Technology — the word SILENCE in prominent black letters posted on the opposite wall. There were at least half a dozen similar signs at strategic locations around the library — they were impossible to miss.
The job of College Librarian was my third professional post and the first in which I was actually in charge of a library. The first thing I did after greeting my new colleagues on my first morning was to take down all those signs.
My predecessor had been very “old school” in his approach to librarianship, and had retired not long before. I, on the other hand, was only six years out of training college and full of bright ideas about how a modern college library should work for the benefit of students in the late 20th century, who were certainly not going to be encouraged to use a library that resembled a Trappist monastery.
The library had — in my view — been badly neglected for years, being full of tired old stock that was seriously out of date and in no way suited to support students who needed to be supplied with the latest information.