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Stacked shelving of dead titles Carol Sullivan 25 Aug 1992 21:21 UTC

We're planning a shifting project for our bound periodicals collection,
which is not classified and is arranged by title.  One of our librarians
had an idea for conserving space.  She suggested shelving dead titles (not
current subscriptions) stacked horizontally on the shelves, with volumes
placed on their back covers. We experimented, and depending on the volume
size, it can save space over "regular" vertical shelving.  These are pros
and cons that I see:

 PROS:
  - Saves some space.
  - Can see easily which titles are dead.

 CONS:
  - Hard to pull volumes out of the stacks, especially ones on the
  bottom of the pile.
   - Hard to reshelve volumes.
  - Harder to locate volumes in the stacks??
  - Mixed vertical and horizontal sections might not be
  aesthetically pleasing.

Has anyone tried stacked, horizontal shelving for periodicals, and if so,
how well does it work?

You can respond directly to me.  Thanks for any input.

Carol Sullivan, Systems Librarian
Air Force Institute of Technology Library, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH
csulliva@afit.af.mil