[cercis]

I take my cellphone everywhere, but I don't answer it everywhere. All cellphones have a button you can push to refuse the call and send the caller to voicemail. And, as far as I know, they all have caller ID, so you can tell if it is someone you *need* to talk to. If I get a call I need to take in a restaurant, I silence it, excuse myself and step out to the entry to call them back.

The only time I've taken a call in a questionable area was when my mom was traveling and called when I was in the library, right after I had just given my name to the librarian to get my holds. There was no one there to say "tell her I had to take this call and I'll be right back". And I know from experience that if you go away for even a moment after requesting your holds, they will return them to circulation and you may or may not be able to get the ones you wanted right away (if it's a high desire book, they will have notified the next person on the list and you have to get to the back of the line again). Yeah, it's an excuse and I could have just dealt with not getting my books then, but I knew it would be a quick call, she was just calling to let me know they were okay (or not) and to give me an update on when they would be back.