From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:51:47 -0500 So an issue of the New Yorker from this fall (the double issue Oct 29/Nov 5 with Mitt getting a tattoo on the cover) went missing, and we went to get a replacement. Seems not to have shown up at all. Called the New Yorker's subscription service number from the masthead in the back of the magazine and found that it can't be done. They now retain only the current issue and two immediately previous and pulp everything else. If you want a back issue older than that, go to the secondary market and good luck to you. 1. Am I wrong that this is a big comedown in service over days of yore? I understand the $$ drivers, but for a magazine as non-evanescent as the New Yorker, it still seems extreme. 2. Makes me realize that while we've been focused on assuring preservation of and access to e-versions of serial publications, we may be approaching the brink of losing the old assurance of print preservation. Once upon a time, lots of libraries got things in print, bound them carefully, cataloged them, shelved them, cared for them lovingly. Loving care for print materials is no longer something you can count on (colleagues trying to give away books at the point of retirement are getting some rude awakenings around me) and when people switch from p- and e- to e-only, there may well be things that just get lost. Reminds me a bit of the great loss of print books in the Catholic church in the 1960s when Latin went out and mountains of stuff got trashed, replaced by mimeographed booklets. It's actually hard to find those old liturgical books now. Same of the New Yorker in 50 years? Or Popular Mechanics? Jim O'Donnell