Many years ago, I attended a university with a library reading room like those shown in the linked article. The high, arched ceilings made a huge difference. Yo

Many years ago, I attended a university with a library reading room like those shown in the linked article. The high, arched ceilings made a huge difference. You could hear the sounds of people talking, coughing, rustling paper, etc. from throughout the room, but the sounds were dampened and dispersed as they echoed off the ceiling. As a result, they were rarely distracting, and I was able to get a lot of studying done. Conversations were discouraged not only by the library rules. The acoustics also made it difficult to understand what even people sitting nearby said. Not many libraries or offices built today could justify the expense of such architecture, though.