The current periodicals room reconsidered

Abstract

Very little appears the professional library literature concerning the public service or management of current periodical collections. The problem may be that libraries differ greatly how they house and service periodicals. A 1984 survey of current periodical areas eastern academic libraries, for instance, showed significant variation from institution to institution. 1 Another problem may be that periodical use areas most institutions are staffed by nonprofessionals with only nominal supervision from a professional librarian. Whatever the case though, it often seems that the library literature has become almost obsessed with covering in topics, like CD-ROM indexes or database searching, and has neglected the basic bread and butter services, like management of current periodicals. The following article describes the efforts of the Pennsylvania State University Libraries to redesign the current periodicals area to better meet the needs of students and faculty. It will focus on common problems public service librarians have the management of large current periodical collections.