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I received about ten replies to the query I sent recently asking about HE libraries' experiences of putting short loan books on the open shelves. (I've copied my original message at the foot of this message.) Libraries' experiences and views differ considerably. Whereas at one library placing short loan books on the open shelves was said to have been pretty disastrous, as books were often not in the right place when people needed them, librarians at a few other universities felt it was successful. Two or three librarians mentioned that short loan books were borrowed considerably more after they were moved from a closed access collection to the open shelves along with the other books. (I guess that this would happen at my library, since some books in the closed access short loan collection behind the Issue Desk tend not to be borrowed as much as we would expect.) I think that there tend to be pros and cons to any arrangement. Some libraries have an open access short loan collection with its own security gates, which would reduce the chances of books being stolen or mislaid, but colleagues at Swansea have decided that this would not be feasible here. I know of a few other libraries that are planning to move books from a closed access short loan collection at the Issue Desk to the open shelves, partly at least because the library is now open for longer periods when the Issue Desk is closed. Ian Glen Swansea University I would be interested to hear of any library, especially in Higher Education, which has placed short loan books (borrowable for approximately 24 hours/ over the weekend or less) on its open shelves (either within the main sequence or separate from the main sequence but not within security gates). At Swansea University we have a closed access Short Loan Collection, but after this summer we may place some of the books from this Collection on the open shelves. If your library does have short loan books on the open shelves I would be grateful if you could tell me how well (or badly) you think that the system works. Do you find any problems such as books in heavy demand being hidden or not returned quickly enough to the shelves?