Students are now expected to remain seated and silent in the library due to new behavior guidelines implemented on April 13. “There needs to be a place where kids can go,” librarian Fred Fox said. “People need a quiet place to get work done.”

According to the guidelines, students must remain seated on chairs unless looking for resources and are forbidden from sitting or sleeping on the floor. Music or videos have to be listened to through headphones.

Group collaboration must be “whisper-quiet” or held in the back of the library. Loud socialization and large groups are no longer welcome. Students who violate the new policies will be asked to leave, according to informational signs posted around the library.

The signs are designed after WWII-era propaganda posters, with mottos such as “loose talk can cost lives.”

Fox, who established the guidelines, hopes the changes will reduce excessive noise and loud social gatherings. Additionally, he hopes it will stop vandalism and destruction of the library, such as shoving food back behind bookshelves and damaging the spines of books.

“It reached the point where we decided that we couldn’t have a place to be quiet and a place to be social,” Fox said.

The stress on the library has grown in the past year. With the diminished cafeteria space and students forbidden from being in the halls during free periods, the library has become one of the last places for group collaboration or breaks.

Such realities have turned some students against the new policy. “My problem is that you have to be in a seat the whole time and you’re not allowed to sit on the floor,” sophomore Juno Brill said. “I think that limits the space and limits the availability of the library to everyone.”