Open vs. Closed Stacks for Academic Library Periodical Collections

Two prevalent systems of organizing bound and current periodical collections in academic libraries are the open stack and the closed stack methods. This paper examines, by means of a survey, which method is used by selected two-year colleges in New York State. The initial purpose of the survey was to determine whether open or closed stacks were a significant factor in the loss of periodicals. The survey was sent to 31 libraries; 27 libraries responded, all apparently satisfied with their current system. The response showed that when theft was a problem, libraries with open stacks noted a greater loss of periodicals.