Re: questions regarding open current periodical stacks Mary Bailey 04 May 2007 13:55 UTC
See my answers following your questions. We do have 4 branches besides the main library, so I will try to address this from all areas. --Mary Mary E. Bailey Serials Librarian 509 Hale Kansas State University Libraries Manhattan, KS 66506-1200 Voice: (785) 532-0678 Fax: (785) 532-7644 e-mail: redhead@ksu.edu >>> mbhhbm@AMERICAN.EDU 5/3/2007 12:56:27 PM >>> We have always had closed current periodical stacks and are planning to move to open stacks. I would like to get some idea of how other academic libraries arrange their current periodicals in open stacks. This listserv seems the ideal way to gather that info from many libraries. 1. Do you keep your current periodicals in a separate place from your bound periodicals? All current periodicals together? Or do you shelve them mixed in with the bound volumes? In the main library the current issues are shelved separately from the bound journals. In most of the branches, the most current issue is shelved separately, but the older issues sit next to the bound ones until there are enough to bind. In the main library there are 3 locations for current periodicals. The social sciences humanities titles are near the SSH ref area. The Science titles are on a different floor next to the Science reference area. There is a group of multi-cultural titles in our multi-cultural center. All of these go to the main stacks when they are bound. 2. Approximately how many subscriptions to print journals and magazines do you have? We are moving to more electronic every year (400 canceled print titles for 2007, somewhere between 550 and 850 will change from print to online for 2008). Maybe 4000 in print? 3. Do you eventually bind most of them or toos them? Most are bound. Probably less than 100 are discarded after a specific time. 4. How do you shelve/display the current issues before they've been bound? (We currently are using hanging folders for the closed stacks. I don't think they will work well in open stacks.) Ours lay flat on shelves in the main library. We stack them until they are removed to be bound or discarded. Each branch has their own reading areas. Some places the journals are on flat shelves, sometimes the most current issue is on a slanted shelf, with a flat shelf behind/below for storing older issues. Sometimes the current issues are in Princeton boxes next to the bound volumes. 5. Do you restrict the use of the current periodicals to a floor or room? Or can they be taken anywhere in the library? They can be used anywhere in the library building. They can not leave the building. 6. Do you security strip all issues, most issues, random issues, weighted towards titles that more often disappear? We use tattle tape in all those that have staples or are glued. If they are only folded together (newspaperish) we do not bother with security strips. Thank you for your replies. Mark Hemhauser American University Library--Serials & E-Resources Washington, DC 20016