Student Worker Guide: Magazines

Magazine Processing

We receive many magazines to add to the collection. Oftentimes, there will be a stack on the book cart by the label “Magazines for Processing”. Here is how to process magazines:

1. If there is plastic wrapping, unwrap the magazine.
2. Flip through the magazine to see if there are any loose pieces of paper. Oftentimes these are ads or forms to fill out to receive subscriptions. Pull the pieces out of the magazine and recycle them.
3. Take off any address stickers.
4. Pay close attention to whether or not you receive any duplicates. If there are duplicate magazines in the stack on the book cart, or you realize there are duplicates when you place the magazines on the shelves, leave them on the library desk and write a note in the end-of-shift report. This is rare, but it happens.
5. For the magazines that aren’t duplicates, place a “Library Use Only” sticker in the bottom left-hand corner of each magazine OR over the address on the front if there is one.
6. Place the newest edition of the magazine over top of the older edition on the shelves. There should be three magazines on the front facing shelf (if the magazines are bigger, there can be less). 
7. Place older editions of the magazine in the magazine storage behind the shelf. There should be 10 magazines in shelf storage. 
8. If you receive a magazine that does not have a spot on one of the shelves, leave it on the library desk and tell the librarian in the End-of-Shift Report.

Back Issues

Back issues of the magazines are kept behind the shelves containing the current issues (lift up the shelf to see). Back issues should be in reverse chronological order (most current on top).

There should always be 10 back issues in the shelf. If there are more, pull out the oldest magazine(s) and stamp “WITHDRAWN” (stamp available in the bottom drawer of the library desk)

Faculty who have signed up can receive these extra back issues of magazines. 

Write the faculty member’s last name on a sticky note and place on top of the magazines.

If the magazine says “Library--For Archive” on the Magazine Archive list, place a sticky note that says “Library Archive” on the stack.

Leave these back issues (stamped with the discarded stamp) on the library desk for the librarian to deliver.

If there is no faculty member or “Library--For Archive” on the Magazine Archive list, take the magazines (stamped with the discarded stamp) and put them in the free magazine box.