Re: Losing periodical space Mary E Massey 14 May 2008 20:14 UTC
Hi Barbara, I have come to an academic library that also continues to lose space, or just fills up what we have. The university is growing and adding Masters' and now Doctoral level degrees which gives us a real challenge to housing materials, as well as purchasing them. An important part of my job is the constant weeding that we do. I am finding that we cannot get rid of materials, but we can change the format of them. Titles may be on databases that you have. Titles may also be procured on microfilm and fiche. Our students and faculty are recognizing our ingenuity in finding materials on formats that have smaller housing needs. We are trying to get ceased materials on the microtext, as well as replacing older volumes with the film format and leaving the latest 1-5 years on the shelves. We have also made 2" wide pamphlet boxes out of the 4" wide ones in order to reduce the shelving space when there are only a few issues in need of protection. Sometimes binders take up less space as well. We replaced the boxes in our Special Collection area by removing 300 4 " boxes and using 300 of the 2" ones, creating 8 shelves of space. The microfilm replacement for print in all shelving areas has saved us close to 150 shelves. I keep doing this year after year. Between the binding, the box size reduction and the microfilm, we have been able to gain enough space to buy and house some core materials from a backruns dealer for a new PhD degree. We are a specialized and technical school that requires more and more resources as well as more new tactics. Be glad to work with you offline. Tinker Massey Serials Librarian Hunt Library Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach, FL masse36e@erau.edu 386-226-6607 -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Barbara A. Shipman Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 3:47 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [SERIALST] Losing periodical space I'm currently on a committee to help in the reorganization of our periodicals floor. Unfortunately, we will lose space rather than gain space (no surprises there). We will lose an area that houses our current journals as well as a couple of ranges for our bound journals. The periodicals will remain on the same floor. As far as I know, placing a some of the bound journals in the basement isn't a consideration. The challenging part for the committee is to figure out how to work with the same amount of journals with less room. I know a majority of you have been through the same situation in you libraries. I would greatly appreciate it if you could share your experiences with me. I hope to get some great ideas that will help our library accomplish this challenging feat. Thank you, Barbara Barbara A. Shipman Acquisitions Department Kresge Library Oakland University Rochester MI 48309 (248) 370-2482