Hi Robert,
We decided to start circumventing our serials vendor and do all new ordering directly with publishers. Maybe this speaks volumes about our particular vendor,
but I’ve found that I do the same amount of work either way so we might as well save a little money by not paying a third party. Some publishers send a crazy number of renewal notices, so that is a little bit of a pain, but otherwise I’d say its worked out
for the best.
There were a few cases where I had more luck getting in contact with a small publisher than the vendor did, or the publisher was more up front with me about
publications on hiatus or cancelled than the vendor. I can’t say for sure that the vendor had the same information, but I found it disappointing that they were trying to renew titles that I knew were cancelled. We now have access to more periodicals electronically
as a result as well. Many of them included a limited number of electronic licenses with a print subscription, but we never knew because we didn’t specifically request it from the vendor.
I’m a solo librarian at a small state government agency, and our serials still dominate a lot of my time. But again, it seems like I spend about the same amount
of time on them as I did with the vendor. However, now I feel like I have more control over it and that I have more complete information about all our subscriptions. I might feel differently if we had a larger collection.
Best of luck!
Jennifer
Jennifer Palmisano
Librarian | Utilities and Transportation Commission
jpalmisa@utc.wa.gov | 360-664-1199
UTC Library Services | PO Box 47250 | Olympia, WA 98504-7250 |
http://www.utc.wa.gov/
“Libraries are about people, not books or technology.”
– R. David Lankes
From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG]
On Behalf Of Robert Terrio
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 5:40 AM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: [SERIALST] Ordering direct from publishers
Greetings,
Does anyone out there have experience with circumventing a serials vendor and ordering (and claiming) journal titles direct from publishers? This is directed at libraries or library branches with smaller collections.
I'd be curious to hear of your experiences, positive and negative, if any of you have tried this, or are currently doing this.
Many thanks!
Robert Terrio
Talbott Library
Westminster Choir College of Rider University
101 Walnut Lane
Princeton, NJ 08540
Phone: 609.921.7100 ex. 8296
Fax: 609.497.0243
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