GEN: Holding on to magazines

[Rena Deutsch <renadeutsch@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>]

We are having problems holding on to our magazines, and feel we need a new
system.  We used to put all the magazines out on the racks, and sure
enough, the popular ones, e.g., Seventeen, YM, Hot Rod, Details, etc.,
disappeared in the blink of an eye.
        Last year, we started a new system.  We took the newest issue of each of
the most popular magazines (in some cases, the last two issues), as well as
the magazines that we 'keep' (that is, that go back in the stacks: National
Geographic, Science, Time, etc) and kept them at the circulation desk. We
placed them in  in hanging file folders in two cardboard file boxes.
Students who wanted one of these had to come and ask for it and hand in
their program cards (which they got back when they returned the magazine).
At first this was an improvement, but these last few months, I've noticed
that there are NO issues of the popular magazines in any of these hanging
file folders.  I've discovered the the problem:  Our monitors sit at the
circulation desk, facing forward.  The boxes with the magazines are behind
them.  Students just come and take magazines out of there without the
monitors noticing. I don't think that the students are necessarily stealing
them.  I think some of them are just 'browsing', in that they want to see
the cover of the magazine before they decide they want to read it. Then if
they decide they do, they will take the magazine out to the main part of
the library, where it becomes forever lost. Unfortunately, we really have
no space to put the magazine box anywhere else, except, for example, at the
monitor's feet. We do, however, have two drawers (about 6" high) at the
circ desk, and a side section with two shelves, about 12" wide each.
        My new idea is:
1. get rid of the boxes
2  put only the 15-20 most popular magazines in those plastic magazine
holders in a drawer at the circ         desk
3. make a copy of the cover of each of the above magazines, and place the
cover in a plastic sheet protector, which are then placed in with the rest
of the magazines in the racks.
4. students who want a particular magazine/issue bring up the cover/sheet
protector and exchange it (along with their I.D.) for the magazine.
        I think, however,  that this may be a lot of work, especially for the
weekly magazines, and not super effective.

        Does anyone have a simpler, more efficient way of dealing with magazines?

Rena Deutsch, Librarian
High School for the Humanities
New York, NY
renadeutsch@worldnet.att.com



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