3 messages:
1)_____
Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 10:22:08 -0400
From: Susan Davis <unlsdb@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: Re: Issue arrival times
There are some good tips in the responses below, but I wanted to add
another point or two.
The magazines we are discussing are not sent to libraries by subscription
agents, the issues are shipped from the publisher/distributor. Whether
you use EBSCO or Faxon or subscribe direct should have no bearing on when
you receive your issues.
In our case, mail comes to a central campus mail office from the post
office. Then it's sorted by building and delivered. Our issues may be
delayed 1-2 days on campus for this process.
And I totally agree that delivery of magazines is often at the discretion
of your postal carrier. They spread out the heavy stuff, and as long as
the delivery is made within the parameters of the shipping contract, they
can deliver whenever they want.
I haven't checked lately, but it seemed to me that you used to count on
titles like Newsweek, Time, Business Week, etc. hitting the NEWSTANDS well
before the issues arrived in the library. Newstand titles aren't
dependent on either the label affixing process or the postal service, so
can be shipped out (via trucks for the most part) as soon as the issues
have been printed.
Susan Davis
############################################################################
Susan Davis Chair, Serials Section (ALCTS)
Head, Periodicals 2001/02
Acquisitions Dept.
University at Buffalo (SUNY)
Lockwood Library Bldg.
Buffalo, NY 14260-2200
(716) 645-2784
(716) 645-5955 fax
unlsdb@acsu.buffalo.edu
2)____
Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 08:41:33 -0600
From: Dan Lester <dan@riverofdata.com>
Subject: Re: Issue arrival times
I don't think it is surprising that things get to you at home first.
The magazines at home come directly to your mailbox. The letter
carrier on your route is under considerable pressure to keep things
caught up and moving. The conditions are very different for those
handling the bagged mail that comes to your library or campus.
Certainly on campuses I've worked on (seven in all), there is a built
in delay of going through campus mail. The mail gets extra handling
there, and perhaps extra sorting (depending on addressing, campus
policies, etc.). Also, if you're not large enough to get your own
pre-bagged mail, there are plenty of opportunities for others to
"pre-view" the the SI Swimsuit issue, the latest Rolling Stone or
Time, and so forth. Then there is the library processing time to be
added, and it is almost guaranteed that a patron won't see something
on the shelf sooner than they will get it at home.
Personally, I doubt the publishers handle institutional subscriptions
any differently than they do individual ones, at least as far as
preparing things for mailing. The mailings have to be presorted down
to route level (i.e. nine digit zipcodes or other route coding), and
it would make no sense to have different runs or sequences of these.
Finally, some patrons will just never be satisfied. I worked in a
small college in the mountains of Colorado. Every morning the WSJ
came in on the first plane from Denver. We received it about 11AM.
Several of the folks who visited us each summer for Elderhostel just
couldn't understand why we didn't have the WSJ ready for them at 7AM
just like they got it at home in NYC or Miami. We explained it. They
still thought it was some failure on our part. Little wonder that
some staff referred to a few of them (in the staff room, of course) as
the "Hostile Elders".
cheers
dan
Thursday, August 02, 2001, 8:06:47 AM, you wrote:
EcVE> I receive my personal issues of magazines about one week earlier at home
EcVE> than
EcVE> we do at the library.
--
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler dan@RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho 83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com www.gailndan.com Stop Global Whining!
3)______
Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 09:59:40 -0700
From: Janet Essency <essency@MISU.NODAK.EDU>
Subject: Re: Issue arrival times (Dani Lichtenberg)
Dani,
I believe that institutions subcriptions are sent out after personal
ones. But if there is a significant lag between the two I can't say I
ever noticed it. Admittedly my sample is small ; titles I have a
personal subcription to and which the library has subcriptions to as
well. I used to live in a large city (Chicago) and the same was true
there as well. Is your patron looking at what's in bookstores ? The
practice there is usually that magazines are shipped there and then put
out on a certain date. Sometimes bookstores don't pay attention to those
dates. I don't think there is any answer that will satisfy this type of
patron. Good Luck . Janet Essency . Minot State University. Minot, ND
