Thank you to all respondents. See below for original posting. Many people recommended Princeton Files. We could not afford steel or plastic Princetons, and we felt cardboard was too likely to fall apart considering the total investment. Others recommended the cardboard journal holders. The problem is that we have some-they obscure the journal spine info, and in practice are a pain in the neck. They also don't last... One person is putting journals on their sides. Since we're constantly using ours, that would be nightmarish, and for me painful! I'm recuperating a hand injury. This is what we found that is a little off the beaten track (Yankee ingenuity?): There is something called a Ball Bungee, that looks like a larger version of a ponytail holder. They're normally used to hold down tents and tarps, but they'd hold journals in bundles. They were relatively inexpensive, $25 for 100 at 9". We decided not to go with these because we want whatever we buy to last several years, and figure the average lifespan of a ponytail holder is only a couple... Still, they were very intriguing. Since some of you may be interested, the company is Canopy Masters, tel. 1-877-722-6679. We found a product called Velcro One-Wrap we plan to go with. It's double-sided velcro sold by the yard, 1" width. We plan to cut it into 24" lengths for bundling, and use heavy-duty bookends for support. We called Velco USA Inc. for the local distributors in our area. Velco USA Inc.-- 1-603-669-4880. Total project cost for us around $600, including bookends. Hope this helps others. Donna Beales Lowell General Hospital Health Science Library Lowell, MA (978) 937-6247 FAX (978) 937-6855 [log in to unmask] http://lowellgeneral.library.net ---------- From: Donna Beales Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 10:06 AM To: 'Medlib-L' Subject: ? Physically Managing Unbound Journals The hospital I work for ceased binding our journals years ago, and I don't anticipate that we'll begin again any time soon due to cost issues. Our problem is that the unbound volumes flop around and fall off the shelves. We looked into buying see-through plastic holders, and the cost would be in excess of $2,000 - $4,000, which is not affordable for us at this time. Recently we purchased large elastics, and this solved the problem for several months, but the elastics deteriorate more quickly than I thought, needing constant replacement. There must be something out there 'like' elastics to hold a dozen or so issues together, that would be affordable for a small library like us... Does anyone know if there is such a thing? I was thinking of really long zip ties, but have no idea where I might buy some. Maybe Medlibbers have better ideas? I am not concerned with long-term archival issues-our journals are kept 15 years, and then tossed. Thanks! Donna Beales Lowell General Hospital Health Science Library Lowell, MA (978) 937-6247 FAX (978) 937-6855 [log in to unmask] http://lowellgeneral.library.net