Strength in Reserve (and Periodicals too)

At the end of Spring semester, we will be moving around 30,000 bound journals to the Libraries MLAC storage facility. Among other benefits, this will mean many many many less tight titles, because we'll have so much free space on the shelves!

Click here to see the journey our periodicals will take to get from Wilson to MLAC.

Below is a message from the librarians who made decisions about which 30,000 will be moved:

As happens over time, Wilson Library's Periodicals room has reached full shelving capacity, with hundreds of new volumes coming in each month. Libraries strive to keep their shelves at no more than 85% capacity, in order to create the needed space for future growth and ease of use.

As the Libraries move steadily toward more electronic journal access, reduction of binding and staff costs and the space needed to house print journals over time, we are still adding approximately 300 volumes per month to the Periodical Room collection, or 3600 volumes per year, and we are out of room.

To gain the needed space, our goal is to move 30,000 volumes out of the Periodical Room to the Minnesota Library Access Center (MLAC) compact storage facility in Andersen Library.

While we may not be able to have every desired periodical volume available in Wilson Periodicals, we provide a 24-hour turnaround time for paging material from MLAC and delivering it to the user's choice of University Library sites. We can also provide for consulting multiple volumes on-site at MLAC in Andersen Library.

We have prepared a list of journal titles, the back issues of which we believe could be transferred to MLAC with minimal inconvenience to users. These fall into two main categories. The first group comprises journal titles for which we can provide the text to pre-1996 issues in electronic format, titles via JSTOR and other providers. Titles in the second group are those for which we received no issues after 1995 and which are likely to receive less use than titles currently received. Subject librarians have reviewed these ceased or cancelled journal runs in their disciplines and have determined that these could be transferred to MLAC with little inconvenience to users.

Now we want your input!

The lists of titles that we are proposing to move to MLAC ar eposted on the University Libraries wehsbte at http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/permove2007.phtml. Between now and April 1st, please review the lists and identify any titles that you feel should remain in the Wilson Periodical Room. Please send your suggestions for titles you would like to see kept in Wilson to: colldev@umn.edu or by campus mail to Periodicals Project, 170B Wilson Library.

We appreciate your help!

Final transfer decisions will be made in early April and the materials will be moved at the end of the spring semester.