You are right! It is time-consuming and often a little frustrating that publishers rarely if ever contact you, the subscriber. It is usually up to you to
do the contacting. I usually wait till payment is made, then do the same as you: follow-up, sometimes several times. Often it is a process of back and forth emails; depending on the publisher; they vary.
If there is a better way, I would also like to know. Just like for print periodicals, it sometimes takes 2-3 months from order to access.
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu]
On Behalf Of Jessica Harris
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2014 12:25 PM
To: SERIALST@list.uvm.edu
Subject: [SERIALST] Process for activating new serials
Hello, All,
I have a question regarding other libraries’ procedures for subscribing to new e-journals. If you’re working with an agent (we’re working with EBSCO), at what point do you contact
the publisher to request access to the journal? I understand that most publishers won’t connect you until payment is received. However, I’m finding that even once payment has been processed, the publishers often don’t contact us to let us know that we’re connected
(or that they need our IP ranges, signed license, etc.). Because of this, I’ve been adding every new e-journal acquisition to a calendar to alert myself to follow up in one month’s time. Often, when I check to see if we have access after a month, we still
do not. I then follow up directly with the publisher to see what we need to do. As you can imagine, this can be very time consuming. What do you do when you acquire new e-journals? Do you contact the publisher right away to get the ball rolling & trust that
they’ll follow through until it’s connected? Is there a better way to go about this? Thank you in advance for any help you can give here!
Jessica Harris
Electronic Resources Librarian
University Library
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
408-554-5356
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