Please reply to Duncan McClusky, not to SERIALST.  --ed.

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I have been asked to survey other academic libraries to see if they
have their current periodicals all in one location and how it is
working.

Currently Auburn University has around 6,000 periodical subscriptions
broken up by subject areas.  Each subject floor maintains their own
open stacks current periodicals.  This results in a lot of duplication
of effort and we seem to have a large number of incomplete volumes
that we have not bound.

1.  Name of Library/ University

2.  Size of Current Periodical Collection

3.  Are your current periodicals centrally located?  If centrally
located, are they open stacks or closed stacks?  [The rest of the
questions are if your library has a current periodical reading room.]

4.  Are any other services (reserve materials, photocopying,
etc) combined with the current periodicals and if so, what?

5.  What sort of security arrangement, if any,  do you have for your
current periodicals?  Do patrons need to leave an identification card
to check out current periodicals?

6.  Do you have photocopiers near the current periodicals and if so,
how many?

7.  Do you have problems with a line of patrons developing who want
assistance?

8.  Do you have an area near the current periodicals where patrons
can sit and read the current periodicals and if so, approximately how
many people can use the area at one time?

9.  Do you have a limit on the number of current periodicals a patron
can have out at one time and if so, how many?

10.  Do you barcode individual issues?  If so, do you find the
circulation data useful?  Why?

11.  What is the loan period (if any) on current issues
    a)  for patrons at the desk?
    b)  for ILL?

12.  For size of collection please specify number of titles as well
as the size of the shelving area.

13.  What hours are your reading room open?
    Same as the rest of the library?

14.  How many staff/student hours are required to operate the room?

15.  Are incomplete volumes shelved with the current periodicals
until complete?

    If you move incomplete volumes to a more secure area until
completion, are they accessible during the same hours as the reading
room?  Does your public catalog direct patrons to a different
location for these unbound incompletes?

Thank you very much for your assistance.  Please post your responses
to me directly and I can post a summary then back to the list.

Duncan McClusky
Reference Librarian
Science and Technology Department
Ralph Brown Draughon Library
Auburn University
mcclusky@lib.auburn.edu