How I wish people wouldn’t shout, swear and play computer games loudly while visiting the library.

On entering my first West Yorkshire Victorian-built library, I fell in love with its tiled floors, ornate staircases and high ceilings, its maze of rooms, its ancient bookcases, its musty aroma of a time gone by.

However, it wasn’t long before my excitement and pleasure became tainted by the sound of mobile phones, couples arguing and teenagers swinging on squeaky chairs.

After speaking to an assistant working in Bradford Central Library, I was surprised to learn there is no policy regarding silence in public libraries. This is in order to encourage more people, especially young people, to use the facilities and, according to staff it is working.

I have to admit that I am still inordinately fond of some of the older, larger libraries despite their noise. Their sprawling, labyrinth ways mean that a quiet, hidden corner can usually be found in one place or other. I even stumbled across a homeless man once; silent, warm and asleep.

It is within the smaller, local, open-plan libraries that the problem really lies. Here there is no escaping the din.

For people who wish only to check their Facebook accounts or quickly pick out a book, the noise presents little problem. But for people who wish to study or even organise a holiday the racket can be almost unbearable.

A few weeks ago, I was desperately trying to fill in a complicated application form on the internet. To my left, two teenage boys were doing some online shopping and talking loudly while spinning around on their chairs. Behind me a baby was crying relentlessly. There was only one thing for it; ear plugs. I locked my computer screen and walked to the nearest Boots.

My time in the library has been considerably quieter since – yet not entirely without its troubles. Last week, I was forced to remove my ear plugs in order to listen to a woman chastise me for looking at her ‘funny’.

I chatted to five members of the public yesterday ranging from the ages of 19 to 59 and they all agreed that they would prefer the library to be silent. They were regular users of public libraries and cited mobile phones as being their number one irritation.

I strongly believe that libraries are hugely valuable public resources and being temporarily without a computer, I am grateful they exist. However, free internet access, book, CD and DVD lending should be enough to entice people of all ages to use the library. Freedom to make an excessive amount of noise should not be part of the deal.

As I write this very article, a man and woman are having a shrill conversation about the evils of electricity bills as though they were sipping drinks in a coffee shop. I have forgotten my ear plugs.