Checking the Duplicate Shelves

The Duplicate Shelves are where we keep any copies of current or loose periodicals. When the periodicals get bound, we no longer hold onto these duplicates. The task here is to go through these shelves, looking up each journal individually to determine if its counterpart has been bound.

The procedure:

• Starting at the beginning of the shelves, a student takes a pile of journals to one of the computers and, using IRIS, looks each up by title.
• The student then takes note of the volume number, issue number and year (or similar variable) and checks to determine whether that particular issue is currently housed in the current or bound periodicals.
  • If it is listed as being in the Current Periodicals, the student simply puts the issue back on the duplicate shelf, making sure it remains in alphabetical order by journal title.
  • If it is listed as being in the Bound Periodicals, the student must then go to the shelves where it is physically located and make sure that the issue is included in the bound volume. This is done to make sure that the issue in hand is in fact a duplicate issue and not missing from the bound volume.
• Issues whose copies are in Bound Periodicals get routed to the Absolute boxes, located near the freight elevator in the office.
• If we only hold the current issues for certain titles (eg - "Current Year Only") and the issue in hand predates the set range, that issue is routed to the Absolute box as well
• Since the run of Duplicates is a fairly large, it will likely take multiple shifts for students to finish going through them all. For this reason, we ask that students put some indicator of where they left off so that the next student assigned this task can pick up from there.
• As the Absolute boxes fill up, they should be taped up and mailed to:

  Absolute Backorder Service, Inc.
  475 Washington St.
  Wrentham, MA 02093