Mark,

1. Our campus has open stacks for current and bound issues of serials.
The current issues are kept on shelves on the main floor near our computer
and study areas. Right now our current bound titles are on a floor with the
books and the dead titles (past subscriptions) are on another floor. I know,
it is a mess but it wasn't my doing and we are working on a plan to integrate
them back together.

2. We run about 250 subscriptions right now.

3. We bind most of them when the volumes are complete. Most of the
newsletter types of things we keep for a year then offer for discard.

4. We actually have special shelves for the display of the currents. Some
shelving units are tall (about 4 shelves high) and some are short (2 shelves
high). They have a slanted shelf with a lip where the newest issue is placed
and you life up the entire slanted shelf to store the older issues until they
are pulled for binding. If you go this route I wouldn't recommend what we
are using but I could get you the nomenclature for the shelves so you know
what to avoid.

5. These are open stacks with no restrictions. They can and are taken
anyplace within the building.

6. We security strip all issues.

Hope this helps. If you need more information contact me off line.

Roger

Roger Davis
Serials Librarian
Kent State University - Stark Campus
6000 Frank Ave. NW
Canton, Ohio

> 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?
>
> 2. Approximately how many subscriptions to print journals and
> magazines do you have?
>
> 3. Do you eventually bind most of them or toos them?
>
> 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.)
>
> 5. Do you restrict the use of the current periodicals to a floor
> or room? Or can they be taken anywhere in the library?
>
> 6. Do you security strip all issues, most issues, random issues,
> weighted towards titles that more often disappear?
>
> Thank you for your replies.
>
> Mark Hemhauser
> American University Library--Serials & E-Resources
> Washington, DC  20016