Study Rooms
The group study rooms in the Thompson Library are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Individuals are welcome to use the group study rooms alone, but they are expected to yield them to groups on request either of group members or of library staff acting in the group's behalf. (A "group" is two or more people working together on a common project.)
The Bibliographic Instruction Room may be reserved by UM-Flint faculty members for meetings with their classes, provided that the meetings entail library instruction or assignments, and do not conflict with previously scheduled use of the room by library staff. Faculty interested in reserving the Bibliographic Instruction Room should contact the Bibliographic Instruction librarian (Laura Friesen-Lynn, at 762-3007).
Rationale: A first-come, first-served, non-reserved approach to the group rooms will help assure equitable opportunity for all students to use these rooms. It will:
- Free a short-handed library staff from time-consuming booking operations
- Eliminate the question of charging for reserving rooms
- Render unnecessary staff obligations to clear reserved rooms at appointed times (a process bound to incur resentment among those "cleared")
- Make it unnecessary to "open" a reserved room for general use when those who have reserved it fail to appear.
The Bibliographic Instruction Room, on the other hand, is specifically designed for use by classes engaged in library orientation and instruction. It is an appropriate setting for faculty members to meet with their classes when working on those activities.
The primary intention of this room has always been to provide a place where librarians can provide bibliographic and media instruction to UM-Flint classes. Such meetings should ordinarily receive precedence over meetings not involving a librarian should there be a schedule conflict, since this is the only classroom available to the librarians. Departmental faculty, in contrast, always have a classroom available for their regularly scheduled class meetings, even if they are unable to obtain the Bibliographic Instruction Room.
