Group Study Rooms
If a library visitor asks us:
Can I reserve a study room for my group?
The answer would be:
Yes, you may. A room may be reserved in advance on the TULIBS Booking System.
The visitor may ask who can reserve a room. Our answer:
All members of the TU community.
They may ask if they are permitted to reserve a study room to work alone, or whether only groups are allowed to reserve rooms.
Individual and group study rooms are available, whichever is needed.
They may not know anything about our booking system or where to find it. We may offer the further explanation:
If you go to the TU Libraries website, look at the top of the homepage for the middle dropdown column for Facilities. Click on that and the second choice from the top is GROUP STUDY ROOMS. Click on that and you should find further information and a link for reserving a room. If the link is not working, you may also ask a library staff member at the front desk for information.
Does it cost anything to reserve a study room?
No, there is no charge for this service.
Where are the study rooms located?
Study rooms are available at the Pridi Banomyong Library, the Professor Direk Jayanama Library, the Sanya Dharmasakti Library, the Puey Ungphakorn Library (Faculty of Economics, Tha Prachan campus), the Puey Ungphakorn Library (Rangsit campus), Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarinda Learning Centre, and Nongyao Chaiseri Library.
If students wants to reserve a study room in a library where there are no study rooms, we may suggest instead that they choose one of the larger libraries where many rooms are available. For example:
The Pridi Banomyong Library has 16 study rooms.
What levels are they on?
The Underground 2 and Underground 3 levels.
Note that it is not necessary to reply in a full sentence, with subject included, as people do in English classes, where the long reply would be:
Group study rooms are available to be reserved in the Pridi Banomyong Library on the Underground 2 and Underground 3 levels of the library.
Although the above sentence would be graded correct in most English classes, it wastes a lot of time and effort when a much shorter sentence would be enough to give the students the information they need. It is not necessary to repeat a lot of the information already exchanged in the conversation, because it may be assumed that both people talking remember the subject of the conversation, and do not need to be reminded of it. To repeat everything again gives the impression that we think the students no longer remember the question they just asked and need to be told by us all over again what it was. So we do not need to repeat that
Group study rooms are available to be reserved
Since it is clear that the subject of the conversation is where and how are group study rooms available. Also, it is not necessary to say
in the Pridi Banomyong Library
because if the conversation is taking place in the Pridi Banomyong Library or it is understood that the subject of the conversation is the Pridi Banomyong Library, it is a waste of time to repeat it. Finally, it is not necessary to repeat
of the library
since it is evident that the topic of conversation is group study rooms in the library, not anywhere else. So instead of this long sentence with many words,
Group study rooms are available to be reserved in the Pridi Banomyong Library on the Underground 2 and Underground 3 levels of the library.
We can just say
Yes, on the Underground 2 and Underground 3 levels.
This saves us and the students lots of time. They may also want to know how many people can fit in a study room:
We have eight rooms where ten people may study, and eight for three or four people.
If the students have a very large group of more than ten people, we may suggest that they reserve more than one room. If they ask whether they are allowed to eat or drink in the study rooms, our answer would be:
No, but food and drinks can be purchased and eaten at the entrance to the library.
Another possibility is that students may ask if they may use the Adul Wichiencharoen Room on the Underground 2 level of the Pridi Banomyong Library as a study room for their group. Our reply would be:
No, the Adul Wichiencharoen Room is open to all students at all times, so it is not for group study, since people can walk in at any time, disturbing the study group.
Note that we have not just told the students no, we have explained why the Adul Wichiencharoen Room is not an appropriate place for study groups, since the point of a group study room is that in principle, students working there are not interrupted by their friends and others who might wander in and get in the way of their work. Since it is not permitted to close the door of the Adul Wichiencharoen Room, and it remains open for use of all library members during opening hours, it is not the right choice for a study room.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)