Reshelving Study of Review Literature in the Physical Sciences

Abstract

Review publications contain articles that give overviews or state-of-the-art reports on specific topics. Although some review titles are published more frequently, many appear only once a year. At the Physical Sciences Library of the Pennsylvania State University’s University Park Campus, a year-long reshelving study of the review publications collection was undertaken to determine usage of the titles. This need was fueled by a lack of shelf space, storage considerations, and the threat of serials cancellations. Three hundred review titles were examined. The best data were found in classes QC, QD, and QH-QP (monographic series only). The other classes had few titles or low use tallies. Approximately half of all titles were used at least once. Periodicals had a higher percentage of use than did monographic series.