Simpson Library Technical Services

The first duty of the student aide is periodical management. Completing this task before any other is important as these magazines are issued at most weekly and at least once a year. They quickly become obsolete, so it is important to have the most up to date shelved downstairs for patrons to read.  

At the start of every shift, go into the staff kitchen (directly beside the Technical Services Assistant office on the second floor) to check the white bin that says “Magazines/Newspapers” under the counter near the fridge. Retrieve all the magazines inside. Sometimes other staff members will retrieve the newspaper to set out, so if there is none, don’t worry about it. 

If there are newspapers to be put out, just take them downstairs to the shelves near the computers and the juvenile/young adult section and place them in the correct space. 

Use the chart below to understand our retention period (how long we keep an item) and what to do with them after that time has passed. If you have a lot of newspapers to recycle, take a cart to stack them on and bring them upstairs. There is a large blue recycling box outside in the parking lot where you can dispose of them. 

Use the date stamper to stamp the correct date onto the interior front cover of each magazine.  

Click here!

After that you are done! Put the magazines downstairs on their correct shelves and move the current copy on display in the hidden shelving underneath the display stand. You just have to lift it up. 

After a certain period of time, we remove magazines from their shelves and from Alma. You may find it easier to remove magazines as you are putting a new one on the shelf or you may wait after a month or so to do a mass removal.  

While we do physically remove the magazines from their shelf, we also need to electronically remove them from Alma. Look up the correct record in Alma, it is the same process as listed above in the Adding Magazines to Alma section if you are unsure. 

Once you find the items you would like to remove, click the three dots button on the right side. Find and click the ‘Withdraw’ option.  

Refer to the table below for our retention periods. Please note that any magazines that are sent to the stacks and/or reference after their retention period is over should be given to the Technical Services Assistant to be barcoded and placed in stacks.