Emma-
I have no statistics to back me up, but it seems logical that there would
be more vandalism from open stacks than closed.  We have open stacks and
experience articles cut from journals much more frequently than I would
like.  It seems to me that there is a give and take.  With open stacks,
you lose more on vandalism, but you also don't have the cost of student
assistants to handle requests.  In our case, I think the students would
cost more.

Freya Anderson
University of Alaska Anchorage
Consortium Library
<anfna@UAA.ALASKA.EDU>
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On Fri, 10 Jan 1997, Emma Cuesta wrote:
> Please excuse me if this is not quite the right forum for this question,
> but I think that serialists may give me some interesting input.
> Our periodicals collection is currently housed in closed stacks and are
> retrieved at the patron's request by student assistants.  We (the Serials
> librarian and I) have recommended that they be classified and housed in open
> stacks.  There have been some concerns expressed about the security of the
> collection.  It is my impression that there is roughly a similar amount of
> vandalism from open and closed stacks.  Any comments?
>
> Emma Cuesta
> Assistant Dean of Access Services
> Hofstra University
> Hempstead N.Y.
> <LIBCREZC@VAXC.HOFSTRA.EDU>