***Hmm, I wonder what country people think Wisconsin is in?

***You're not as alone as you might think, Lesley, although I'm sure the
distance looms large when added to the irritations.  I share two of your
frustrations:  Until this past July, all invoices were paid by our "mother"
university in Madison, resulting in -at least- a six week delay from the
time an invoice arrived in the mail until the sender received the check.
Eight weeks was just as common.  Because I am in Wisconsin, probably, I
pretty much treated the frantic "You haven't paid!  And therefore are in
supreme danger of having your subscription cut off!!!" as so much hooey and
dispatched them to the filing cabinet with little regard.

***The line missing in the address, I assure you, is not an international
problem, and it's one that is becoming increasingly frequent for me.  In
fact I was going to ask about it on Serialst.  Titles - common titles - that
the library has subscribed to for years have of late been delivered to me by
irate professors or other university staff to whom the offending issue has
been routed (by the mail dept.) with direction to correct the addressing on
"my" subscriptions - "You should put Library on the address."
I *do* put not only Library, but Serials Dept, Cofrin Library, on the
address, and so does my vendor.  It's been that way for years.  But now
issues are coming in with one blank line on the label, between "University
of Wisconsin-Green Bay" and "2420 Nicolet Drive".  I find myself sending
address corrections in, and wondering what will happen at renewal.  Does
anyone know why this is happening?

***You do have my sympathies, Lesley, on all your issues.  It's frustrating
not to have one's "givens" taken into consideration, or worse, to be
penalized for them.  If it's any comfort, I do wish you luck :)

Jeanette L. Skwor                       Email:skworj@uwgb.edu
Serials Dept., Cofrin Library           Phone: (920)465-2670
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay       Fax: (920)465-2783
Green Bay, WI  54311-7001

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lesley Tweddle [mailto:ltweddle@aucegypt.edu]
> Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 5:49 PM
> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject: Re: How International is the Serialst?
>
>
> Hallo Judy,
>
> You asked if there were any List members in Africa - well
> here I am, in Egypt.
>
> You asked
>
> > How International do you feel is the list? Does the list center on
> American concerns over those of an international nature?
>
> Because I'm working in an American university, I suppose I
> feel the List
> is relevant to most of my professional concerns.
>
> But there are naturally aspects of NOT being inside the USA that leave
> US librarians unmoved and therefore don't whip up the kind of List
> support that can sometimes move mountains... and I have
> passing regrets
> for this.
>
> For example, no-one on Serialst is likely to feel unduly
> outraged by the
> profiteering that goes on when publishers charge us the International
> rate for subscriptions, even when they are mailing those subscriptions
> to an address in the USA.  Our dealers tell us "the publisher cares
> about where the end user is" - but in a case like ours, what are the
> extra expenses that justify such a high surcharge?  Will any
> Serialsters
> man the barricades with me?
>
> Nor am I likely to arouse an effective lobby if I complain about the
> ignorance shown by US suppliers of the time it takes for an air mail
> letter to reach a foreign country, (15 days from here to the USA or in
> the other direction).  Those two transits effectivly eat up
> the "payment
> within 30 days" rule without allowing time for the Library to process
> the invoice OR the University accounts office to produce the cheque.
> This has a huge impact on the number of "why haven't you
> paid" mailings
> we have to deal with.
>
> Our major vendors are OK, but for Internet subscriptions we
> have to deal
> directly with an increasing number of publishers (usually of the HUGE,
> couldn't-care-less variety).  You folks can dial a toll-free
> number and
> bash on until you reach someone who seems human enough to work on the
> problem, so once again, I don't have much hope of List solidarity in
> this battle.
>
> Perhaps the fact that we have an extra line in our address (I mean
> "EGYPT") increases the tendency of suppliers to edit out anything
> inessential like "LIBRARY" - which means the CD, or whatever
> it is, goes
> wandering round the whole University (including the
> Bookstore) until it
> just gets adopted or thrown out.  Any volunteers to campaign on that?
>
> In those respects, therefore, Serialst seems very US-delimited.  But
> apart from that it is my favourite Listserve, and I bless its patient
> Moderators who correct typos and prevent the flooding of the
> entire List
> with messages about subscribing and unsubscribing.
>
> Cheers, all
>
> Lesley Tweddle
> American University in Cairo Library
>  <ltweddle@aucegypt.edu>