---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 09:59:12 -0400
From: Helen Aiello <haiello@MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU>
Subject: Re: time frame for current periodicals on the shelf (Jennifer van              Sickle)

A plan that was in place at one institution in which I worked was to have a
specific time period for keeping 'current bounds' versus what would go onto
a 'storage collection'.  It could be a current 10 or 15 year policy:
whatever fits your space needs collection.  This helps in two ways: it more
or less allows a constant space for the current materials (providing you
don't get a windfall for periodical acquisitions) and it allows library
staff/users to know that if it is X years old, it will be either in
'current' or in storage.
One drawback is that it means removing the 'storage year' every year to
stay within the X years guideline.  Another is the fact that your storage
area is not open to the public (one advantage that I had in working with
this plan was that the 'storage' collection was open to the public)
implying that users will be thwarted in retrieving materials when staff are
unavailable.  Perhaps in  creating a policy, keeping the storage area open
to the public might be a consideration.

Of course, as electronic collections versus paper collections of
periodicals become more prevalent, this issue may be moot in the not too
distant future....Good luck.

At 10:43 AM 6/22/99 -0400, you wrote:
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 09:04:22 -0400
>From: "van Sickle, Jennifer" <jennifer.vansickle@EXCHANGE.CC.TRINCOLL.EDU>
>Subject: time frame for current periodicals on the shelf
>
>Hi everyone,
>
>        We are a small (2000 students) mostly undergraduate liberal arts
>college.  I am looking for suggestions or policies on how long other
>libraries keep bound periodicals in the open stacks.  We currently do not
>have a formal policy in place re: the length of time bound periodicals stay
>in the stacks before being relegated to the basement.  The basement is
>currently closed to the public, and we shelve by LC call numbers.    Since
>our shelf space is not infinite, we find that some titles, especially
>science periodicals, have nowhere to go but directly to the basement; other
>titles such as those in the humanities don't grow as quickly.
>
>Are decisions made on a title by title basis?  Subject matter? Is it an
>arbitrary decision depending on how much space there happens to be?  Is this
>information available to the public?
>
>I'll summarize for the list if there's enough interest.  Thank you in
>advance.
>
>Jennifer van Sickle M.L.S.
>Serials librarian/Science bibliographer
>Trinity College
>300 Summit St.
>Hartford CT 06106
>
>(860) 297-2250 phone
>(860) 297-2251 fax
>
>jennifer.vansickle@trincoll.edu

*****************************************************************
Helen M. Aiello, Serials Librarian
Wesleyan University Library
Periodical Dept., P.O. Box 2799
Middletown, CT 06459-9299.
USA

Voice: (860) 685-3828
e-mail: HAIELLO@Wesleyan.edu
Fax: (860) 685-2661