Thank you all for your responses.  I feel the need to be a bit more
specific in response to several questions tendered my way.

I was wondering if those of you who have taken your serials out of a
closed environment (meaning, staff help where the serials are away from
prying plying hands), think that the cost of upkeep now is equal to the
cost of staff when your serials were in a closed/staff environment.

As to the mixing in with stacks.  What I meant here, was whether or not any
of you had gone so far as to mix journals and other subject oriented
serials in with the books.  I am curious to know if this increases the
use of certain serials due to them being found with call #'s right next
to same type book material?

My vision of mixing serials to create high use is the basis of my paper,
however I realize that $$ factors need to be looked.  Serials do suffer
greatly out of a closed stack area where they can be stolen and torn on a
regular basis.

Are the upkeep costs so high that only a closed shelf area (staff and all),
can keep those costs down, or does the staff salary exceed that of serial
upkeep?  With many libraries turning away from renewing subscriptions for
serials in favor of CD ROM, and ONLINE services, is upkeep a consideration
any more?

If you have found all your responses to be very informative.  Thank you
for sharing your shelf management practices with me.  Any more thoughts
and practices that you can share will be greatly appreciated.

Mary Lenentine
Library Tech II
melenent@wln.com