Quiet no longer required in some libraries around the country

From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:
Imagine walking into a public library filled with PlayStations, Wii game consoles and electric keyboards turned up to maximum volume. Teenagers are munching on snacks, checking out laptops and slouching on sofas or beanbags. A carousel of computers is in the middle of the room, most of the screens navigated to Facebook. That's how one enormous room on the ground floor of Chicago Public Library's main branch functions. This noisy library model, designed with help from Carnegie Mellon University, is expanding around the country....The library developed YOUmedia lab in partnership with Digital Youth Network, a digital literacy program based at DePaul University. It opened as an experiment in 2009, costing $1.2 million for the first year. The designers based their idea on the research of Mizuko Ito, a cultural anthropologist at the University of California, Irvine and co-author of "Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media." Ito contends that children and young adults are more likely to come up with creative ideas when surrounded by stimulating technology in a relaxed, social setting.

For the full story, please visit http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_769306.html.

Also ran in:
-Aiken Standard
-Nashua Telegraph
-Kingsport Times News
-Bellingham Herald
-Sacramento Bee