I was just about glad that this discussion was winding down until I saw
two librarians comment that they did not presume to know better than their
patrons/users about what to select for the library.  Dang, I wasted a
whole 3-hour credit (graduate-level) on a Collection Development course if
I don't have some kind of concept, and a more informed perspective than
our students, when it comes to journal selection.  If you have plenty of
shelving space and a large enough serials budget to support the ongoing
subscription of popular magazines, then by all means, keep the freebies
and pick up the tab for next year.  Some of us have to be more selective.
I can't see going with popular demand when we are having to cancel
academic/research journals in order to be able to keep buying at least a
nominal number of monographs, but if others have the budget for it, and
someone isn't having to use Interlibrary Loan for his term paper while
another student is enjoying the current issue of YM, then someone needs to
scrutinize his/her priorities in serials collection development.  This
argument does not apply so much to public libraries, of course.  I don't
presume to tell a public library how to select their material.

Just my two-cents worth.
Sarah Tusa, Serials Acquisitions Librarian
Lamar University
Beaumont, TX
<TUSA@ALMARK.LAMAR.EDU>