WHAT?!

megaphone crackles to life

until now

This is incorrect.

From Wikipedia:

The term library is based on the Latin word liber for 'book' or 'document', contained in Latin libraria 'collection of books' and librarium 'container for books'.

Since I'm a Technical Consultant for my local library I can honestly say I was in one just last week. In fact I'm logged into their system right now making some adjustments to their public access computers. I know what patrons are doing when they think no one is looking and I know exactly what would happen if Libraries were open late so people could lounge around.

Many libararies are already employing Security Staff to keep things under control during regular hours and there is no reason to think that it get any better 'after dark' so to speak.

In my VERY limited experience, school libraries tend to be quiet/silent while public ones are more communal with varied loudness spaces. But a lot of people only experience school libraries.

My hometown library was quiet all the time in the 80s, but it was also basically one really large room and any noise carried really well so they enforced quiet. The state college library was similar, and enforced quiet when I went in the 90s because people were studying.

Most libraries in the movies are also large, open spaces and like everything else they play up the extremes or the writer's experiences. Since movies tend to stick with stereotypes, so don't expect a library scene in a movie without someone being hushed any time soon.

I wish. Getting scolded by an old crone for daring to use your voice in the library never leaves you. Children can be excited or loud sometimes, but libraries exist to make them seen, not heard.