Good question, (and the first one, so thank you):
3 reasons:
1. Technically, we are a Bodleian library, which strictly speaking, rules out coffee and coke etc., so we are already on our own in breaching the rules here (Bodleian is currently debating water being allowed in the Bodleian libraries).
2. Food = Mess + Noise – which is a disaster for pest control and minimizing the complaints I already receive (already had one about greasy keyboards on the library computers – student caught eating potato crisps, you know who you are!!).
3. A LOT of your fellow students get really resentful of people eating round them while they are trying to study, especially when the eating is noisy and people eat “smelly” food, so given that we are the library and not the cafeteria (and there’s no other library), I get their point, and their needs trump those of the would-be munchers.
(Despite all the above, we once allowed “dry non-messy” food in on a trial basis, and it was a disaster – people interpreted this as including cutlery requiring meals and the complaints and results were horrific – if it’s any consolation, I don’t let the library staff eat in the library offices because you can’t eat in the library, and they hate it)
