Judith,

 

Loss of e-access at the beginning of the year is a big problem that reflects the fact that publishers, providers like Ingenta and subscription agents haven't developed a smooth renewal system yet. Our Serials Unit depends on users including other library staff to let us know when they encounter denial of access because we don't have enough have staff to verify the appropriate activation of every title at the beginning of every year. When we discover we have lost access, it sometimes takes repeated claims sent through our subscription agent to get access re-activated. It took a couple weeks to correct the problem when this library recently discovered it had lost access to two Ingenta titles published by a society. Our subcription agent confirmed payment had gone to the publisher on time, but the publisher apparently had not communicated with Ingenta. Consequently, we lost all access to these continuing subscriptions until Ingenta updated their records.

 

When we claimed Highwire access to another title, we received an email saying we needed to enter the subscription ID in their activation form in order to restore access we had had at the end of December. A message that the ID was already activated appeared when we entered the subscription ID provided by our subscription agent even though we still didn't have access. When our subscription agent made her fourth telephone call to the publisher on our behalf, she learned the problem was the 2009 subscription ID had expired and the publisher hadn't yet entered 2010 subscription IDs into their system. Aaargh! The publisher restored our access for the time being by extending the coverage under the 2009 subscription ID, but that is a temporary fix that will make it necessary for me to check the title periodically to be sure access isn't turned off again.
--
Rose Marie Parsons
Albertsons Library
Boise State University
P.O. Box 46
Boise, Idaho 83707-0046
Telephone: 208-426-4224
Fax: 208-334-2126