Hi, Mark. 

We also receive a variety of newspapers, but they have been whittled down considerably over the years.  Some of the papers we receive are from the southeast Kansas area and we don't subscribe to them.  Because we don't subscribe to them, we don't feel the need to document exactly which issues we have.  We have marc records for them with a note indicating we have the current 2 weeks of issues and just put them on the shelf.  For other papers we subscribe that are published daily (KC Star, Topeka Capital Journal, etc.), we also keep 2 weeks of issues and we check them in.  For the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Morning Sun (local newspaper), and Collegio (school newspaper published weekly), we keep 1 month on the shelf in the public area.  For Wall Street Journal and New York Times, we keep 2 more months in a storage area in technical services due to shelf space issues.  We receive microfilm of Morning Sun and Collegio about once a year, so we keep the issues until we receive it.  For us, it mostly came down to shelf space and that people don't tend to read more than the most current issues.  We also have some online access to some of the newspapers.

Sincerely,

Barbara M. Pope, MALS

Periodicals/Reference Librarian

Axe Library

Pittsburg State University

Pittsburg KS  66762

620-235-4884

bpope@pittstate.edu

Do you have a rule of thumb for how long you retain newspapers on the shelf?