I suppose it would have an advantage of keeping dust off the materials.  Of course you would have to have a device on hand that would re-wrap them upon return and when you remove shrink-wrap there is always the possibility you will damage the item in question.  Our institution bound and coded a large mass of material over a two year period in preparation for its deposit in just such a facility, so it can be done.  The whole process took less than four man-years.  I did somewhat under half the work and we were able to hire two temporary clerks who were here for a year.  Two other employees pitched in.  IW

I.  Woodward
Serials Office
Colgate University Libraries
Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, N.Y. 13346
Ph.:   315-228-7306
Fax:   315-228-7029

Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm -- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. -  T.S. Eliot

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Pennington, Buddy D.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 5:53 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Shrink-wrapping library materials??

Hi all,

We are getting ready to prepare large numbers of materials for an automated storage and retrieval system.  We were looking at using shrink-wrapping as an alternative to binding.  Do any of you have any experience with shrink-wrapping library materials (either in-house or with a vendor).  If so, any caveats or recommendations?

Buddy Pennington

Serial Acquisitions Librarian

University of Missouri - Kansas City

800 East 51st Street

Kansas City, MO  64110

Phone: 816-235-1548

Fax: 816-333-5584

Email: penningtonb@umkc.edu

UMKC University Libraries: Discovery. Knowledge. Empowerment.