On a hot summer day I turned up at the St Catherine Parish Library to meet with members of a research team to discuss a project they were working on. I was dressed in a shoulderless dress - you know those nice little summer dresses that are cool and comfortable.

I remember going to the said library as a child and that there was no air conditioning there, just ceiling fans, so I felt that I needed to wear something appropriate. To my shock and awe, I was advised that I could not use the library, as I was not appropriately dressed as there was a dress code for using the library. I think this is taking this dress code issue a little too far. After arguing with the 'security and front desk personnel', who were hell bent on enforcing the code, I asked to speak with the librarian and was told she was not available. One of them had the audacity to point me to a dress code chart on the door which indicated that no shorts or spaghetti-strap blouses were allowed. Honestly I was confused.

To make the matter more ridiculous, my colleague, who had a towel in his car decided to drape my shoulders in the towel so that I could focus on what we were there to do. I believe a bath towel is more offensive than my bare shoulders but I was allowed into the library with a bath towel draped over my shoulders.

Now to the seriousness of the matter, I believe the Jamaica Library Service has lost its head on this one. A dress code for a public library is just absurd. What is wrong with wearing a pair of shorts or a spaghetti-strap blouse into a public library to do some research or just read a book? Nowhere else in the world have I heard such lunacy and I have used many libraries, including the main library at the UWI and the British Library of Political and Economic Science.

What is this dress code really meant to achieve?

I am, etc.,

ANNEKE ROUSSEAU

anneke_rousseau@yahoo.co.uk