Thank you to those members who replied to my query as to whether any
organisation banned the use of mobiles within the building completely or had
succeeded in keeping the library a mobile free zone. A summary of the
replies follows: 

                        Only one organisation banned phones from the
building and
                         this is because it is a chemical site of a
pharmaceutical 
                         company.

                         All respondents tried to ban their use within the
library, had 
                         it as one of their rules and displayed notices. But
most 
                         reported that they have little success with
enforcing it. The 
                         best scenario seems to be that most people run out
of the
                         library when their phone rings, talking as they
run.

                         Some apply sanctions ranging  from banning
"offenders"
                         from the centre for 24hrs., for one week or
permanently                       
                         depending upon whether they "re-offend" or are rude
to             
                         staff. One Library charges on the spot fines of £5.
                         
                         Someone also pointed out that a lot of students are
now 
                         using the internet, rather than their phone to send
text
                         messaging. This is seen as inappropriate behaviour
and 
                         their network account is temporarily stopped.

                         One rather intriguing suggestion was that our
organisations
                         might follow the French Railway's lead in leaving
empty
                         phone booths in the building with the idea that
people 
                         would take advantage of the privacy they offered!

                         Some people would have liked to confiscate phones
or use
                          jamming devices but realise that the first is just
inviting 
                          conflict and the second is illegal in this
country.

     I think that the most helpful thing for us and our library environment
would
     be to have the full support of senior management and  student union and
     to have a college culture where everyone enforces the idea that phones
     must not be used in areas of the college where they might cause a
     cause a nuisance. Finally someone has pointed out to me,  a new	
     subscriber,  that an exhaustive discussion on this issue has already
     taken place and is fully documented on the Archives link of jiscmail.
    
     www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-LINK.html




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