---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 14:57:03 -0500
From: David Goodman <dgoodman@PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: When do periodicals become outdated? (Michael Spencer)

The best way is, of course, to measure the use in your own library, but
if you need to go by approximate guidelines, don't just go by subject,
but by importance of the journal in the subject. It is a general rule
that in any discipline the most important few titles get most of the
use.
For example, in our library Journal of biological chemistry is in the
Biology library for 1970 and later, and the years from 1905-1969 are in
our Annex. However, Journal of biochemistry, a much less important
title, is in the Biology Library only for 1995+, and 1951-94 is in the
Annex.

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 12:10:30 -0500
> From: Michael SPENCER <mspencer@SBU.EDU>
> Subject: When do periodicals become outdated?
>
> Our periodicals department has run out of room, and I have been facing the
> question of when older years of specific periodicals become so dated that
> they can or perhaps should be put into storage, or perhaps may just as
> well be discarded altogether. Specifically, when do periodicals definitely
> or probably become of little enough use so that such a move may be made in
> these fields?:
>
>           The various sciences (including biology, physics, and chemistry)
>            law
>            medicine
>            accounting
>            taxation
>
>       For example, we have printed issues of "The Journal of Accountancy"
> back to 1910 and a journal of taxation from the 1930s.
>      The fields listed above are simply those where this question has come
> up here so far; however, perhaps people have opinions in other fields
> besides these.

--
David Goodman
Research Librarian and
Biological Science Bibliographer
Princeton University Library
Princeton, NJ 08544-0001
phone: 609-258-7785
fax: 609-258-2627
e-mail: dgoodman@princeton.edu