Abstract
As academic libraries strive to meet the challenges of the 21st century, we need to examine new ways to fulfill our educational mission. Simply continuing to do things the same way we always have is no longer an option. On the one hand, technology is rapidly changing how we go about our work. On the other hand, competition among institutions of higher learning is such that only those who provide the best educational experience for their students will thrive. Faced with these challenges, college and university libraries have implemented a variety of reorganizational strategies. A review of the literature provides copious examples of this. More recent examples of this include the excellent article by Mori Lou Higa and others describing changes at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and the collection of articles edited by Bradford Lee Eden which deals specifically with the reorganization of library technical services. For its part, Grand Valley State University has taken the unusual step of doing away with its Periodicals Department. This article will explain how and why this happened.
Keywords
Academic Libraries, Serials, Reorganization
Disciplines
Library and Information Science
ScholarWorks Citation
Schoofs, Bob, "Abolish the Periodicals Department!" (2007). Scholarly Papers and Articles. 1.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_sp/1
Comments
Originally published in C&RL News, January 2007 Vol. 68, No. 1