The Economist used to be oversize years ago, but now it is standard North American magazine size; about 11 inches high.   Your student employee may be looking at some very old Economist volumes.  We have compact shelves, and one of the drawbacks or limitations is that you cannot fine-tune your shelf height to different non-standard or extra large volume sizes.  The most convenient shelf height with our compact shelves is just right for a standard magazine or government document (11 inches in height.)   To adjust the height for larger magazines etc., you lose one entire shelf per section.  (That’s my experience, anyway.)

Robin Hutchinson

Serials and Government Documents Librarian

Owen D. Young Library

St. Lawrence University

Canton, NY 13617

From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of bpope
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 11:45 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] oversize

Hello, everyone out there in Serials-land. 

We are looking at getting compact shelving soon.  I have been asked to find out how much of our bound periodicals area is considered oversize, as it may have be shelved separate from compact shelving.  What is considered oversize with bound volumes?  A cataloger in our tech services said anything over 30 cm (11.8 inches).  By that definition, according to my student employee, Economist magazine is oversize, which does not seem right to me.  Anyone have any ideas?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Barbara M. Pope, MALS

Periodicals/Reference Librarian

Axe Library

Pittsubrg State University

1701 S. Broadway

Pittsburg KS  66762

620-235-4884

bpope@pittstate.edu