At 10:36 AM 10/21/96 EST, Susan Smith wrote:
>Our library is in an open concept R&D center.  We encourage browsing, and
>shelve the current issues so they actually wrap around the outside wall
>out into a central indoor mall area.  But things have gone too far,
>we're experiencing a lot of missing issues.  We really don't want to put
>them behind the Reference desk, or buy lots of copy 2's, but we need to
>get the message out to the patrons that they just can't walk off with
>the journals.  We may resort to putting the current issues in binders,
>but are looking for alternatives as well.  Any advice?  Any creative
>solutions?  I'd appreciate any help.

 I don't know what kind of security system you have, but we 3M strip all of
our "high risk" magazines and keep a few of the "highest risk" ones behind
the circulation desk (Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and the like).  That may
be enough if you're opposed to putting journals in binders.  However, we did
find that our rate of journal loss decreased significantly when we put them
in binders rather than leaving them loose.   We already keep all of our most
current issues in binders and display them in an open area.  However, we
have discovered that something in the binder prevents the 3M system from
detecting a stripped magazine (the metal must block the magnetic strip, or
something like that).  We therefore make sure that the most current "high
risk" issues on display are in OVERSIZED binders.

Hope this helps.

Christine Shearman -- Circulation/ Serials Control Assistant
Oliver Wendell Holmes Library
Phillips Academy
Andover, MA 01810
email: cshearman@.andover.edu

"It is never too late to become what you might have been."
                                        --George Eliot