On Fri, 5 Jan 1996, Sonya Foust wrote:

> We are in the process of exploring the idea of setting
> up a current periodicals browsing area.  To this point
> we have a closed current periodical stacks.  We would
> like to have any comments that people feel would help
> us in planning this project. ...

Sonya:

  San Francisco State University is a medium-sized state University.  we
have approximately 21,000 fte student body (i.e. the actual number of
students, when counted, including part-time students comes out to closer
29,000).  We subscribe to approximately 8,000 periodicals and newspapers
(not counting serials, and monographic series which are shelved
separately).

  The current periodicals area is "open" to everyone, but the issues can
only circulate overnight.  We do not barcode individual issues and our
circulation system cannot handle circulation of individual issues (well,
technically it can, but we would have to key each item record that was to
be circulated, causing a tremendous increase in the workload at the
periodicals desk, so it was decided that the manual check-out worked just
fine as it is).

  All the periodicals are shelved by title, not classified.  All have
been cataloged so that our opac reflects our holdings.  Additionally, the
opac lists the title the periodical is shelved under, if it is not
shelved under the title proper.

  Our current periodicals area is tattle-taped (i.e. we tattle tape
individual issues and everyone has to walk though a security gate).

  The bound periodicals are shelved separately, not with the classified
books, but alphabetically on the same floor as the current periodicals.

  Staffing is mostly part-time students with staff supervisors.  All
periodical check-in (still done manually) is done by full-time staff.

  We have about 4 copy machines within the enclosed "gate" part of
current periodicals.  The machines are very heavily used and need regular
maintenance.

  The microform (microfilm and microfiche) area is outside the enclosed
area.  Besides microform readers we also have microfilm-reader/printers
and microfiche-reader/printers.  All of our copy machines accept coins
and most accept copy-cards (available for sale in our rapid-copy dept.).

We have large tables (and chairs) among the current periodical shelving
to accomodate the patrons.  Each table has a bin with a large notice
asking patrons to place periodicals in the bin when they are finished,
and not on the shelves.

We also have printed lists of all of our periodicals (including the
holdings) available at the periodicals desk.  There are 4 opac terminals
available for the public in the periodicals area.

I hope that helps.

-- Mitch

  _^_                                                 _^_
( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-( ___ )
 |   |                                               |   |
 |   |     Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian           |   |
 |   |     San Francisco State University Library    |   |
 |   |     Internet: turitz@sfsu.edu                 |   |
 |   |                                               |   |
( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-( ___ )
   V                                                   V
       Rule #1: Don't sweat the small stuff.
       Rule #2: It's ALL small stuff.