How long to keep magazines

[Melissa Smith]

I'm a fairly new school librarian, and I just recently graduated from my Master's degree program. I have a question that I feel is kind of silly, but I'm having a hard time making a decision: How long should a small school library (approx. 225 students K-12) keep back issues of magazines? My para recently pulled a box of Newsweek magazines out of our storage room... from 1968. Although I kind of want to keep those, purely for the novelty of it, it got me thinking about what else is buried in the depths of the storage room. I keep trying to convince my paras that we don't need to be hoarders, and that our storage space can be better used, but trying to get them to get rid of things is like pulling teeth! I would like to be able to give them a good guideline of when to get rid of things, so I'm curious what everyone else does?

Thanks!

[Cindie Gaither]

Hi Melissa,

 When I worked in the public library, our policy was current issue plus 12 months of past issues. Now in my first year as a high school librarian, my policy is current issue, current year and one year prior. The current issue is on my desplay stand for current magazines. These issues are available for in-library reading only, to give more students the chance to browse the magazine. When the next issue comes in (for example December) the previous issue (November) then goes on the back-issue shelf. Currently I have 2012 and 2013 on that shelf. When Jan 2014 moves to the back issue shelf, Jan 2012 will be weeded and made available to teachers for in-class use. 

Cindie

[Melissa Smith]

Thanks Cindie,

That's about what I was thinking of changing our policy to, but I'm having a hard time convincing my paras that we don't need to keep them that long!

[ccotta]

So many articles can be found online in databases, and none of my patrons have ever asked for back issues past a year. I only keep a year of issues. I do keep a few from previous years for a section of magazines okay for cutting out pics for posters and collages.

[Any Fauzianie]

Hallo,

In my school library, we kept the magazines at least for one year. If it the Arts magazine, you can keep them longer. We can easily find the databases of back magazines online. Cheers!