Does your library route magazines and journals? At my previous employer, we’d route new magazines to faculty by request. We’d just put each issue in their mailbox, and then when they’d finish reading them, they’d have to bring them back to the library (or put them in the library mailbox), and we’d add them to the general collection.
One problem was that some faculty would keep issues for months—or forever. BUT- my print magazines and journals are so infrequently read, that I wouldn’t necessarily mind if they went MIA.
So, I’m thinking of asking my faculty if they’d like to have certain periodicals placed in their mailboxes each month- example :
Chronicle of Higher ed to whomever requests
WIRED or Educause for IT/Dean
Businessweek or Economist for Business instructors
Thoughts? Experience with this?
6 comments:
One of my previous employers did route mags. This was at a corporate library which had a mail room that handled the actual routing. The library put a routing slip on the cover and when you were done with the mag you put it in your out box for the next reader. The library routed hundreds of mags a month and when you needed to track one done it was lot of work to find it.
My library has a dearth of storage space so I frequently give older issues of periodicals to staff/faculty. Just mention at a faculty meeting or send out an email to find out who would want old copies of magazine/journal.
Our admissions reps have meeting rooms that are geared towards a specific programmatic field. They often request old magazines as "props" to give the rooms a more authentic feel.
Business instructors have requested old magazines to carve up for marketing classes as well. I keep all the magazines I don't have room for in a box behind my desk and wait for someone to claim them.
It's a nice idea; however, I'd like to encourage and entice my faculty into coming into the library (whether or not it's working right now is questionable), so I'd like to keep the periodicals in the library. If there seems to be an interesting or timely article I will sometimes let them know or email them.
Dan, I am not worried about older issues of magazines. I will just recycle those.. I am thinking of routing b/c it'll get faculty addicted to the sweet plethora of information that my library has to offer.
See, it's like "crack."
Too funny, Amy!
I'm glad that Kate gets my jokes :)
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