Sapp and Suttle mention 5.5 feet per volume of bound journals as a shelving vendor's estimate in "A method for measuring collection expansion rates and shelf space capacities," Journal of Academic Librarianship, July 1994, vol. 20, p156-161. The article mentions that their own experience showed that shelf space requirements varied greatly by discipline. For example, humanities journals are often quarterly, while chemistry and engineering have many monthly titles.

Ginger
--
Virginia Kay Williams
Acquisitions Librarian and Associate Professor
Wichita State University
1845 Fairmount / Box 68
Wichita, KS 67260-0068
316-978-6442
ginger.williams@wichita.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG] On Behalf Of Gordon Coleman
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2015 3:31 PM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: [SERIALST] Average width of a year of a journal?

Hi all.

My library is doing a serials discarding project. We'll be tossing out lengthy print runs of a number of journals. (Yes yes, we've got online versions, with perpetual access rights, plus backup print copies at a partner library in a shared archival network.)

The question I've been asked is: how many feet of shelf space will we save?

When the discarding is being carried out, we can take an exact measurement, but I'd like a way to estimate now. Does the serials world have a standard figure for the width of an average journal in a year? For example, if the average journal takes up 3" of shelf space per year, I can multiple it by the total number of journal-years being discarded and get an estimate.

Thanks in advance for any data/guesses you have re this question.

Gordon

Gordon Coleman
Head, Acquisitions & Serials
Simon Fraser University Library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
gcoleman@sfu.ca
778-782-3916

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