Sometimes I think that I'm personally keeping Demco fiscally alive with my orders for those little plastic serial boxes for storing back issues.
Now that my print book collection is growing larger, the books and the back issues of serials are competing for shelf space. I'd have enough room if I didn't have so many back issues of serials to store. I follow the suggestions for how long to keep back issues, but I have so many distinct titles that each require their own little plastic bin.
This whole budget planning/serial ordering project has come at just the right time. I've been whining about how much room it takes to store back issues, and now is my opportunity to avoid that problem in the future by ordering fewer serials in print. My goal is to order only as many serials as I can neatly display on the slanted shelves---and to stop ordering more little plastic boxes from Demco!!
GOA9: Progress Report
2 days ago
2 comments:
Chandra,
I've had the same problem, and I also have the same remedy for this year! I guess we just need to think about how often serials and their back issues get used. From my experience, back issues are rarely (if ever) used or requested. In some ways, I feel like it's even wasted space to store the back issues - there are certainly other hard copy resources that are competing for the space!
My dean and I decided to cut 20% from our serials budget for 2009-2010 and I have to say that I feel a big sense of relief now that I have done that. There are so many expensive print materials that just have not been even touched.
I do give one of our high school admissions reps the back issues of print materials that are also online. He takes them to a local high school that has purposely been seeking print magazines and journals -- so at least I know someone is looking at some of them!
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