thank you for answering my survey about current periodical configurations Mark Hemhauser 04 May 2007 19:25 UTC

Response was very good to my question about how libraries handle their
current periodicals. I've pasted a summary of the results below. For the
most part current periodical issues tend to be kept in a separate location
from bound periodicals, regardless of the size of the collection. That's
what I suspected. We will continue to consider what to do to open our
current periodicals stacks given financial and space constraints. Thank you
to all who replied.

Current separate from bound -  19               Current w/bound  - 5
      8 of the 19 have a “reading room”

Size of collections varied from 300-12000 print subscriptions. Of the big
libraries (1,300, 2,400, 8,000, 12,0000, 2,825 and 4,000 print subs.) six
had separate sections and two (1,372 & 3,500) shelved current with bound
journals.

75% of respondents bind most of their print journals

Display method (includes if in bound stacks):
Flat shelves - 7
Slant shelves – 10 (including big libraries 2,400, 12,000 and 2,825)
Periodical boxes – 5 (including some not in bound stacks)
Unknown/NA – 2

Restrict use?
      Reading room-4; Anywhere in library-19;  Circulate-1

Security strip?
      All-13;   Some/by loss rate-7;  Random-1; None-2  (one of these
started with all and reduced to none over time)

Total Libraries Responding – 24

Mark Hemhauser
American University Library--Serials