Closed stacks for current periodicals? Paula Sullenger 17 Jul 2008 17:44 UTC
I'm looking closely at some of our serials processes to see where we might make some labor- and time-saving changes. One of the ideas floating around now is to eliminate check-in and/or claiming. I*ve checked with our internal auditors about this and the reply was that we should check now and then to see that we are receiving items but it is not strictly necessary to check in each and every issue. As we use students for the majority of our check-in, this would not be a great savings for us. We are looking at ways to cut down on claiming but haven*t implemented any changes yet. Another area I*ve been thinking about involves our procedures for current periodicals. We have two sections of current periodicals with humanities and social sciences titles on one floor and science titles on another. We are very likely to combine these into one current periodicals section in the near future. We check in on our ILS, date stamp, and strip each issue and then send them to the public areas where they are arranged on flat shelving in alphabetical order. I*m wondering about the need for all of our current periodicals to go to the current shelves. Why couldn*t we have a closed stacks arrangements for a subset and only send browsing types of titles to the open shelves? We are dropping print subscriptions where possible. We are still left with a sizable number of academic titles for which we have print+online access but cannot drop print for a variety of reasons. We prep these titles, send them out to the public shelves (where we are fairly confident that they sit for nearly a year without being touched), then collect them and bring them back down to be sent to the bindery. My thought is to identify some of these titles and instead of actually checking them in, have a note to put them on the closed stacks shelving (we have some extra room in the back of Acquisitions where we could put some shelves). We wouldn*t check-in or strip since we won*t worry about them being lost. If we have the title name taped to the shelves we would have a clear visual clue if a title isn*t coming in. Most issues would never leave the room. When we have a binding unit it*ll be right there twenty feet away from the person who prepares the bindery shipment. I*d like to hear from libraries that keep their current periodicals in closed stacks. What issues do you encounter? Do you have notes in your OPAC that say that current issues are available on request? I*m debating whether to say that or not mention current periodicals at all because most patrons would just assume we had dropped print for online. I don*t think we*ll get many requests for the titles I have in mind. When I look at our current periodicals areas I only ever see the glossy magazines lying around needing re-shelving. We would put a title back out on the public shelves if we find a demand for it. Has anyone else tried such a hybrid arrangement? Even if you haven*t, I*d like feedback on the advantages or disadvantages that other serials librarians see with this experiment. I*ve brought up the idea to our reference librarians and some of them are dubious and some of them are already making plans for the space we could be freeing up. Thanks in advance, Paula Sullenger Head, Acquisitions Dept. Auburn University Libraries 231 Mell St. Auburn University, AL 36849-5606 334-844-1725 phone 334-844-3148 fax sullepa@auburn.edu