Unfortunately, that's the way Access has been since Access 2000. Making any
changes to the underlying objects in the database (as opposed to data
changes in the tables) requires exclusive access, as the entire MDB is
saved.
If this is a production application, though, it should be split into a
front-end (containing the queries, forms, reports, macros and modules),
linked to a back-end (containing the tables). Only the back-end should be on
the server: each user should have his/her own copy of the front-end,
preferably on their hard drive. Then, each user will have exclusive rights
to their front-end.
