Ruby Palmes, a UOG student majoring in the linguistics, is a constant visitor at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Library, and voiced out her concern about not being able to call and reserve a conference room ahead of time before her group arrived at the library.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast semester, to my surprise, I could not reserve a conference room a few hours before my classmates and I scheduled to meet.\u201d Palmes stated.<\/p>\n

Palmes and her classmates were used to reserve a conference room ahead of time. Palmes noticed that the library was refusing to take in early reservations for any of the conference rooms. Palmes and her classmates were confused and upset. They did not see any news or sign about any policy changes.<\/p>\n

Palmes continued, \u201c I didn\u2019t raise any questions right away, but after \u2018competing\u2019 for conference rooms, it started to feel like an inconvenience. My friends and I use the conference rooms often, and this does not help with our situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

According Palmes, she has observed students waiting at the RFK library lobby and hoping to get a room. To Palmes and others, not being able to reserve a room in advance was inconvenient because there is no room guaranteed upon arrival.<\/p>\n

The conference room policy has been temporarily changed due to current revision of the Library\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

The current policy states that a room may be reserved for up to two weeks in advance and for up to four hours maximum use per group (not 4 hours per group member), and a group, which does not arrive on time and occupy the reserved room within 15 minutes of the reserved time, gives up its reservation.<\/p>\n

Carmen Crisostomo, library technician, pointed out that a number of people have been reserving rooms ahead of time lately, but are either late or do not arrive at all. It has been happening too often enough to notice the problem.<\/p>\n

Joey Guzman, library technician, stated that a group could reserve conference rooms up to four hours maximum. There is no room reservation. The conference rooms are a first come, first serve basis. This was implemented to accommodate other students who need the rooms too.<\/p>\n

Daniel D. McKay, MA, MLIS, JD, assistant professor, mentioned a few other issues regarding the Conference Rooms. Some groups would reserve a room for more than four hours, and sometimes those groups will barely be in the room, but still have that room reserved under one of the member\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only have nine conference rooms available. We used to have six. We increased the capacity to accommodate more students,\u201d McKay said.<\/p>\n

According to McKay, the RFK Library is in the process of revising its policies.<\/p>\n

The library has not heard of any complaints regarding the changes. If there are students who really need to reserve the rooms in advance, the library offers to work with these students.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are our priority. We are open to students\u2019 concerns and inputs, especially with redrafting the new policies,\u201d McKay stated. \u201cIf there are students who do need to reserve a conference room ahead of time, then they can come up to the desk and explain their situation. We can work with these students.\u201d<\/p>\n

[supsystic-slider id=10 position=”center”]<\/span><\/p>\n

The RFK Library is the central library facility of the University of Guam, and is located at the Tan Siu Lin Building. It is also considered the largest library in the Micronesian region.<\/span><\/p>\n

The RFK Library collections include over 98,059 print titles and 124,977 print holdings; 925,650 microfilm\/microfiche units, 1527 print serial titles; 5289 audiovisual items and software; and a wealth of subscriptions to electronic full text academic periodicals.<\/p>\n

The library also provides a Web-interfaced Online Catalog that includes an electronic database resource accessible by cardholders.<\/p>\n

The library hours for spring semester are as follows: Monday to Thursday 8 a.m.\u20138 p.m., Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sunday\/ holidays closed.<\/p>\n

For more information please contact Daniel D. McKay, dmckay@triton.uog.edu<\/a> or visit the website, http:\/\/www.uog.edu\/student-services\/rfk-library\/rfk-library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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