RBR – Revamped, Bombastic, Renewed

Jason Hau Han Wen | jasonhau@nus.edu.sg

The Ridge News
A NUSSU Publication

Aug. 22, 2007

A brand new academic year brings about new changes to a familiar system.

Students looking for books from Reserve Books/Readings (RBR) no longer have to fill in tiny slips of paper and wait for the librarians to retrieve the book for them. Instead, they can do it themselves.

Mr. Patrick Lye, senior librarian (Loans and Membership department), told The Ridge that they have decided on the change after an exhaustive review of the old system.

The old RBR system often caused “bottlenecks and delays” as library staff who are “not as young anymore” took some time to locate the book from the closed shelves. In addition, students who requested for a book but were not at the counter area also caused more delays.

As a result, the library decided to open up the RBR section and make it self service. It is based on the common open stack system used throughout the library which both students and staff are familiar with.

The security of the RBR books is top-notch. Two anti-theft gates which use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) have been installed and bags are not permitted inside the section. A librarian mans the checkout counter and also ensures all rules are kept.

Photos: Jason Hau

Students’ feedback is important to the library. Hence, a survey was conducted for a few weeks to assess the satisfactory level of the new system.

A total of 323 students were surveyed and 84.2 percent were fully in favour of the new self-serve process. In addition, shelves for bags were also installed for library users to store their bags before entering the RBR section.

“We no longer have to wait a long time for the librarians to find our books, this system is so much faster,” said Michelle Chen, a fourth-year Arts and Social Sciences undergraduate.

Library staff also agreed that this new system is an improvement. A staff member, who declined to be named, said that their jobs are less hectic now and this makes life easier for them.

However, not everybody fully welcomed the changes. Second-year Arts and Social Sciences undergraduate Jocelyn Teo is one of them. “The place can get pretty crowded and queues are rather long during lunch hour,” she quipped.

According to Mr. Lye, the library will plan another survey in the later part of the semester in order to serve the students better.