Faces in the Water - Pg 239

   The fact that there were notices demanding Silence when one would never have dreamed of speaking made it seem that the room contained secret presences which had to be controlled and which related in a strange way the death and painstaking reconstruction of the moa and the micelike letters that were wired with meaning and resurrected to make words, and placed in imposing attitudes on the pages of the books. So it was for her own protection that the librarian hid behind a grille and pinned notices on the wall; she had to make every effort to subdue more than the timid subscribers tiptoeing between the shelves.