The Access Services Council Requesting Periodicals Subgroup is pleased to announce that on Monday, Aug. 14, the item type PERIODICAL will change from a 24-hour loan period with no renewals to a 7-day loan period with one renewal.

In addition, patrons will also be able to place holds on University Park items with the PERIODICAL item type. (Penn State Law periodicals will continue to be able to have holds placed on them only by law faculty.)

These changes are possible due to the large percentage of titles we have electronically and to the ease and speed of receiving articles through Interlibrary Loan. Periodicals at the campuses also will circulate for a week with one renewal but will not be holdable at this time. The expectation is that, as individual campuses become ready, they will request to have their periodicals holdable as well.

If there are periodical titles that units feel should retain the current 24-hour loan period with no renewals and no holds, they can utilize the new PERIODSPEC item type. PERIODSPEC is now available in the drop-down list of item types in WorkFlows. Unit heads can have their staff change the item type of periodical titles they want to keep closer tabs on from PERIODICAL to PERIODSPEC at this time.

Selectors: If you choose to designate a title and all of its volumes as PERIODSPEC please alert Serials Cataloging (UL-SERIALSCAT@LISTS.PSU.EDU) and Serials Ordering (UL-SERIALSORDERING@LISTS.PSU.EDU). The aforementioned groups will work along with the Bindery to ensure newly acquired materials are given the appropriate item type.

Training Bulletin 49, Requesting and Circulating PERIODSPEC Items, provides information on this new item type for Libraries staff who work on a service desk.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact the Requesting Periodicals Subgroup: Shane Burris, Chris Holobar, Eric Novotny, and Linda Struble. We would like to acknowledge the leadership and contributions of James Keyzer-Andre (Chair) on this project.

–  submitted by Linda Struble, information resources and services supervisor-manager