THE USE OF VERTICAL (PAMPHLET) FILES
IN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL LIBRARIES

The following are edited posts that were received through oztl_net on the subject of maintaining vertical files in school libraries. Many thanks to all those subscribers who responded to my request as to practices in other schools.

I have not the vertical file for years. We have Media Scan and keep a year's supply of newspapers. The Vertical file is still there, but once again mainly archival. Though I do put in the pamphlets and commemorative stuff. We also have Current social issues and current environmental issues, which are split up and put into folders.

That is time consuming but at least the pages are A4 and labelled and easy to insert.

John McCullough	
Alexandra Library
Hamilton College

We have six filing cabinets full of vertical file material. I don't select the materials out of the papers I have one of my technicians complete the task based on already exisitng subjects.

I am tired of the vertical file system and would like to put it all on CDROM, but have yet to locate the time or software to achieve this.

Gavin Sanders
Teacher Librarian
Maclean High

..........I did laugh when I saw the first sentence of your OZTLNET re Vertical files! I would have thought they were out of date by now...except for a few contemporary issues. I shove those into a folder and throw them out when I come across them again.

Chrys Mills.
Ryde Public School

How will you store materials from INFOCUS from the State Library?

We use a very reduced VF for such articles. Which are catalogued in OASIS as VF location in acquisition order. Working fine.

J Radford                                    
Teacher Librarian                       
Trinity Catholic College 

No one has time to read newspapers and select relevant articles and nor should anyone be expected to in this age.

I suggest you actually search for and print articles to service the first few requests of teachers who are resistant to the change, but then do a few searches with those teachers. Before long, they'll see that they can readily do searches themselves.

Curtis Watson, 
Head of Libraries
Macarthur Anglican School

Last year I was faced with exactly the same problem. I sat tight for 10 months - there were other priorities. Then I changed them. I went from straight alpha arrangement to themed drawers and then alpha.

My library assistant weeded - everything not within 3 years, if she was unsure she left the file on my desk - a sure fire way of getting things done.

We are now in the long drawn out process of cataloguing the vf. Every file is borrowable and has a number of subject headings - no more than three. So far with one drawer done and 17 more to go it seems to be working. We only clip if absolutely necessary and after talking to other TLs I am considering 1 paper each (we get three titles a day) to clip.

Jan Barnett
Teacher-Librarian
St Patrick's College

We do have a VF but it is peripheral to the extent that it holds brochures (Dept. of Mines etc.), photocopies of articles from magazines we don't hold (on a random basis - certainly not anywhere near comprehensive) and booklets deemed valuable but not worth cataloguing and shelving. NO newspaper articles!

Newspapers are accessed via Mediascan index, and we house a rolling 12 months of each of two papers which students can request after locating an article via Mediascan. Magazines are accessed via Guidelines index; articles from titles we don't hold can be requested from the Periodical Centre.

Margaret (Queensland)  

I can relate very well to you vertical file problems. I currently maintain a VF with the help of a library assistant. However, weeding old articals is a task that just doesn't seem to get done. Soon it will be put on the major tasks list.

Another VF problem is that staff see an artical from a week or so ago and come to me expecting I've kept it. I may have kept 99 articals on the subject but the right one isn't there of course. Also, up until this year, photocopies of original newspaper articles were required for the VCE English CAT. I understand this requiement is nolonger required so it frees up my options.

So in answer to your survey- [I am] 1. Currently trialling an on-line service 2. Continue to maintain VF and use on-line service.

Liz (Victoria)

We are a medium (5-600) school with a Library staff of 1 Librarian and 1 technician.

I abandoned keeping a VF a few years ago. Our students are able to access all they need through Mediascan newspaper index (we keep 12 months supply of 2 main newspapers), and through Current Social Issues (a compilation of newspaper articles around Australia). We also purchase the Issues Kits from our daily newspapers.

Gaye
Gaye Fitzpatrick
Westall Secondary College

......we still have a vertical file but add very little to it these days as I find newspapers in print (we use NEWSCAN as an index and keep the papers for three months) and on CD-Rom (Sydney Morning Herald which is updated three monthly) really are pretty adequate.

We subscribe to a number of periodicals which we keep for five years and we use Guidelines index for these. Weeding the vertical file is done on a bit of ad hoc basis but is done each year so that gradually we have less and less here. The only things I ever add to this file are topics that seem ultra important.

....some subject departments do their own clippings - but the time taken to do the file as we used to was just too enormous and there are so many alternatives now - not to mention all the extra demnads on library staff time.

I am planning to subscribe to [an online service] this year - just waiting on subscription information now.

Angela Chisholm
Marist College Kogarah

We have not had a verticle file for the last 5 years. We have the Age and Herald Sun on CDROM and we also subscribe to Echo which means we are never more than about 10 days behind with newspapers.

We are about to subscribe to [an online service] and not bother with the Herald sun online service. We also subscribe to [an online service] which has a wonderful array of magazines.

However we are about to go back to a verticle file of sorts. Now we have an Intranet we intend to scan appropriate articles into the Intranet and also Catalogue them using Bibliotech our Library System. This means that these articles will be available on the Intranet under Learning Outcome packs but they will also be available in our Library Catalogue and be able to be accessed from a variety of search terms.

Kathy Kirkwood
Norwood Secondary College

When I arrived at this school, the VF had been abandoned, because it was seen as "taking up too much LRC staff time".

We developed an open-access 365-day run of newspapers, and that worked quite well. We subscribed to NewsExtra and to Echo for newspaper indexes, and that worked quite well too. The limitation was that we didn't have many computers, but that has since been fixed. Staff happily use Guidelines for journals and we have begun a subscription to [an online service], which you can use as an index also.

Now students and staff have got used to Echo, they love it, and they too have realised that returning the papers to the exact place is important.

So the school seems to run well without one, though of course I don't know how well it was organised and maintained before - only two staff have even mentioned the loss in surveys, so most teachers might not have bothered with it anyway.

I would in fact like to start it up again. Don't wince - I mean a very small one, used exclusively to house the stray very useful pamphlet that appears on the scene. I'd catalogue the folder rather than the pamphlet. However, time is a problem, and at the moment all I have is a plastic box where I throw the odd item that might go there.

Margaret (Vic)

....we use the VF only for pamphlets and other such ephemera. We keep a year's worth of the Age, Sun/Herald and Australian stored in labelled boxes in our storeroom. The students request (on a slip we provide) relevant copies identified by searching on Echo and Newscan indexes. They then photocopy articles they need.

We subscribe to Echo on-line and in hardcopy and we print and file to a folder weekly the Newscan files. The latter are emailed to us each Monday.

I can't imagine having time for clipping.

Ninka Watts
Teacher Librarian
Our Lady of Sion College Library (Vic)

We got rid of the vertical file about three years ago, but still maintain an 'Author file' which has articles etc about authors and literature. This meant that we had to keep good indexes and back copies of papers (we keep about a years worth of The Age, Herald-Sun and Australian.

We have subscribed to [an online service]this year - and I am in two minds about its worth. Yes its great and easy for kids to find full text resources, but it is so easy that I feel there is no real evaluation of the articles - the same old problem.

Never the less the vertical file is gone and we just took it away .........we made sure there was sufficient resources to replace the verticle file before we disbanded it, and we made sure that staff were aware of the alternatives.

Marian Lees
Caulfield Grammar School(victoria)

Our Campus is 7-12, with a predominance of year 11 and 12 students. We do a combination of things with regard to newspapers.

1. We have an electronic newspaper index - really good.

2. We keep 12 months worth of back copies of all local papers - but copies get lost or are vandalised

3. We subscribe to Age on CD and Herald Sun on CD - about 3-2 months behind, but still used a lot.

4. We cut the main topics/issues and paste them into large Scrap books (this is to stop thieving and supplement the other work)

5. Our vertical file is only for pamphlets that can't be shelved.

Renate Beilharz
 Rowville Secondary College (Victoria)

Your scenario sounds exactly like the one I confronted when I arrived in my current school, except that the library technician was the insigator of the vertical files and provided an excellent current and on going service.

Most staff were opposed to the vf's going no matter what argument I put forward (my main tack was progressive information skills). The problem is that the vf's are too easy access for students and staff especially! I insisted on expanding the 'current affairs information' by including newspaper indexes such as Mediascan and Echo (we tried Newscan but ditched it), keeping two copies of all newspapers for a twelve month period (one set on open access)and are trialling [an online service].

The vf's have been downsized ..... to one cabinet from four!

Each class that comes into the library to use the 'current affairs information' has an introduction from me as to how to access information (this should start to take care of itself in a few months) and I have suggested to teachers that they make it a work requirement that their students must use a variety of sources of information in a bibliography.

I think that my strategy is working and firmly believe that the students must practice their information seeking skills at every opportunity.

Val Weber

I too arrived in a school where the Vertical Files were quickly redundant and teachers/students expected us to get the information for them. Funds were also drying up fast. Resistance was and still is (in some quarters) still strong.

I subscribed to Current Social Issues, Infocus (State Library of NSW) and Sydney Morning Herald on CD Rom, Guidelines and am considering World Magazine Bank. I listed everything I could on the catalogue. This is always my first port of call with users.

When teachers bring their classes in to the library for newspaper/magazine research, I give them an intro on how to search for articles, etc. themselves. It is really amazing to send them away having learned how to do it themselves (the students that is.. teachers are still 'too busy' most of the time but grateful that their classes are not going away empty handed )

It takes awhile, but seniors are coming back for more which is encouraging.

Marion Silk

I agree totally with your philosophy, but as we know, the situation doesn't always support the theory!

We subscribe to online full text and indexing services; we cut and compile Information Files which are bound, security stripped and catalogued by subject; and we maintain a limited Vertical File which is indexed via catalogue ( criteria: what -we -can -when- we can -and -the -difficult -stuff -that -doesn't- fit -anywhere -else!).

I think that just as there are students who respond well to screen presentation, others who like to look in the catalogue then get information files gathered for them, others who wish to browse through actual back copies, there are students who find it friendliest if they can go to the vertical file and find clippings and pamphlets on their subject in alphabetically order.

1. There was a place for a cuttings service before Newscan and similar newspaper indexing service.

2. Our students LIKE Newscan. They are not asking for Current Social/Environmental cuttings any more... though teachers may use them with less able students. We are discontinuing this service.

3. Students are required to find and clip (what potential nightmare) so i have declared one corner of the library "Siberia" .. newspapers in it cannot be taken out of the area.. students read and clip there. Not highly succesful.. someone clipped the Austn this week. But it is one way for students to access papers older than 3 months...no longer needed when the SMH CD arrives. But it does provide a service to students and recycles papers that would otherwise have gone tot the art room.

We decided this year to stop maintaining our vertical file - library staff hours were reduced considerably and we can't justify the time spent on it. The VF has always been very well used and we kept it current, so we had persevered with it previously.

Our teachers have been OK about our decision because they realise how much work is involved. Have also told them that we will continue to add items such as natural disasters (a major research topic) where there is extensive newspaper coverage over a short time and we know it is for a topic where we need lots of resources. Have also suggested that if they see articles they would like included to let us know and we will cut them out.

We do subscribe [threee online services]. These are all very good and we use them heavily - but we sometimes have trouble accessing, or access is very slow, a combination of problems with our network, general internet traffic etc.

You are right...get rid of the Vertical File. Not only is it time consuming, as you said students do not learn info. gathering skills and if your school is like other schools, the most needed articles mysteriously disappear.

Like you, I do not believe in VFs! I am new at my school this year and made an executive decision to disband the Junior and Seniuor VFs! Staff still do not know - but given the use of the Senior RC previously, proibably would not know any difference!

Based on what I did at my previous school, I have adopted the following:

1. Subscribed to Ebsco Host (online)
2. Subscribed to Echo Online
3. Subscribed to Media Scan (on network)
4. Subscribed to Newscan (Print)

5. Subscribed to Current Social and Environmental Issues. We pull apart the booklets and put in display booklets under SCIS headings.

6. Purchase The Age and Herald Sun Clippings booklets (once a year).

This has sufficed - and still allows students to use Research Skills to locate information.

.....as a compromise I have found that one way of adding to my vertical file is to have students contribute any article they print from the indexes to the vertical file, when they have finished with it.

Keep up the good work, your students need your knowledge of current information research practices. They will be the ones to benefit from your changes.

We do not bother servicing the vertical files either as we subscribe to [an online service] and also Ecodate,Geodate etc and these are great. For a short while some of the teachers still wanted the VF so the teacher aide in their subject area would go through the papers for them. However i have now encouraged them all to use the ecodates etc.

I stopped the cutting of newspapers for the VF 15 years ago ! Who now has the labour resources to be able to give up 2-3 hours a day is the best argument of all. (Blame it on the Dept/Admin whoever !)

Our VF contains some paper cuttings but usually purchased topic sets, but also pamphlets, and other small publications. You have seen our paid subs I'm sure on our webpage so I'll leave that. (http://www.geelongcollege.vic.edu.au) We also buy the CD archives of the papers ......

We did away with our vertical file three years ago for exactly the reasons you articulate. We had neither the time nor the inclination to continue.

We now maintain a one year newspaper archive (we use pamplet boxes with six newspapers per box stored in a compactus) and subscribe to "The Echo' which provides a newspaper index (I think the echo is too Victoria oriented for your needs, but others are good) and have our students locate what they are looking for, photocopy and return newspapers to the correct spot. They usually do too. This has been much more successful, as things don't go missing (students used to steal clippings), it takes minimal time to maintain and means that all of newspaper is available to students and staff, not just what we selected.

We only archive for one year, which is mostly plenty. We are a government secondary school with 1100 students, 2.2 teacher librarians and 1 technician.

I stopped having a Vertical File about ten years ago and I have not missed it. The one thing the Internet does a good job of replacing is the vertical file.

Vertical files have been displaced by magazine and newspaper indexes, in my opinion. The only things I keep in a vertical file are local stories which the indexing services don't pick up.

I got rid of our vertical file 5 years ago when I began work here. No-one misses the vertical file and I am happy to have the file cabinet for other "stuff."

My vertical file has not been updated in the last five years, EXCEPT for the local items of interest and school publications. Our students very rarely use it. They much prefer the computers for research.

Our vertical file doesn't get as much use as before internet but certain files are invaluable. These are the ones worth keeping up in my school:

     -Maps (road maps, National Geographic inserts, etc)
     -Local news 
     -Author files (Book reviews, biographical info, interviews, 
     -Controversial issues 

Since the advent of Internet and other on-line resources, I've quit keeping a vertical file.

I'm in my first year in this school and haven't gotten around to the vertical file yet, but in my previous school, I eventually had it narrowed down to JUST local interest stuff. I imagine that's where I'll end up here too.

If I were doing a brand new Vertical File, I think I'd stick to local topics not covered by electronic resources and other hard-to-find topics. I see that trend in established libraries, too.

I no longer think vertical files are necessary.

I am in a high school and due to the easy access of material no longer keep a vertical file EXCEPT for materials of local/historical significance.

We still maintain our vert. file, but we keep things that students would not find other places--material about our local history, tourism, government, etc. As we have a strong literary research program, we save articles we run across on various authors our students research, especially those from our state. We don't go out of our way to round up this material.

Mostly, we bring in what we read in our newspapers, magazines, etc. We have volunteers who go through magazines we are tossing out for good material, but we only check magazines like Smithsonian or art-related magazines which would be more likely to have articles we might be interested in. We also have listed our files in our on-line catalog so that students will find them when they do a search.

I still keep a vertical file. One of the time consuming tasks of our recent move has been weeding and organization of this. The main things included are pamphlets and newspaper clippings.

Most of our materials are free items (ex. pamphlets on drugs, alcohol, cancer, nutrition) or those difficult to shelve.

In our high school we decided to keep the vertical file because when you have 50 to 75 students in the library they all can't be on the web. The best use of vertical file is probably for local information not easily accessible elsewhere.

Updated April 22, 2001. Reformatted and moved to this site December 28, 2006.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Amanda Credaro © 2006.