I've noticed a problem this summer that, upon investigation does date back
at least a few months, and that is, when issues are processed - stamped (we
stamp on the front cover unless it is too dark or shiny), the ink doesn't
dry, literally for hours.

It came to my attention when a new student began helping out in the
department; he was using our heavier, newspaper stamper for periodicals, and
as he stacked the issues to take them to temp shelving the ink smeared so
badly the date & text was unreadable.  First I thought it had to do with the
temperature/humidity down here, although we do have humidifiers running, but
the weather has long since gone through several changes.

I switched the student to an older stamper, not a self-inking one, that
seems to use less ink, but the problem persisted, and at about that time is
when I noticed some of the issues that had been received during the winter
were smeared in the same way.  So I changed from the Ideal ink we're
currently using to an older brand, Xstamper.

We are still needing to spread our newly-processed issues out on the table
and leave them there overnight before we can stack them for temp shelving.

Are others facing this problem, or better yet, have you solved it?  Do you
have a brand of ink that dries more quickly?  Do you blot your covers?  With
what?

TIA,

Jeanette L. Skwor
Serials Dept.
Cofrin Library
University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
Green Bay, WI 54311-7001
(920) 465-2670