ABSTRACT
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.
