Reading Room: Can you stop planning events in the reading room?
We need a quite place to study, people talk at normal or higher volume in the regular part of the library, and it's just idle chit chat--there are girls right now for example that are talking about different kinds of shots of booze and shaving their buttholes. It's very interesting and super appropriate for the library.
I understand that it's a nice quiet place for you to hold events...but the student's needs should come first.
-
Summer, my apologies for your frustration about not being able to access the Reading Room. This is an issue we hear about frequently from students.
The University Library is committed to the Reading Room being an open student study space as often as possible, but the main challenge is that we do not actually manage the room or book the events that happen within it. The events that occur in the Reading Room are controlled by CSUSM Event and Conference Services, which maintains the Reading Room as one of the official event spaces on campus - to my understanding, this arrangement has existed since Kellogg Library opened.
We are in ongoing conversations with ECS to reduce the amount of Reading Room "downtime" on the schedule, and hope to see increased availability to students in the months ahead. They are aware that the Reading Room is intended for quiet student study whenever an event is not scheduled, but a variety of event management practices need to be examined and adjusted to keep the room open to students more frequently.
The Library is in full agreement that this is an important quiet study space for CSUSM students, but because it is needed at times for campus events our goal is to work with ECS to achieve a happier medium.