This evaluative study hypothesizes and addresses three system approaches to a National Periodicals Center (NPC) that could be pursued at this time: (1) System A, a non-intervention approach which assumes events will be allowed to develop without introduction of federal legislation designed to subsidize or create a National Periodicals System (NPS) or an NPC; (2) System B, the creation of a centralized single-collection NPC as a main component of an NPS, subsidized with federal funds; and (3) System C, the creation of a subsidized utility that offers requesting libraries access tools for identifying the location of periodical articles and performs switching of requests for article copies to multiple market-oriented, fee-charging supplier sources. This system would be coupled with creation and operation of a dedicated NPC market-type collection for items not covered by market-oriented document suppliers. The study's overall view is that cost economies by themselves do not provide a rationale for adopting either system B or C, and that there are other criteria of greater importance which warrant further study. Chapters of the report discuss background, systems and issues, and criteria elements, and analyze financial costs and benefits, as well as qualitative issues. Tables and figures provide relevant data. (FM)