Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 15:13:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: ELEANOR COOK <COOKEI@appstate.edu>

Dear colleagues,

I am posting this to ACQNET and SERIALST for our staff because I know
that in some libraries acquisitions staff deal with legal materials and
in others, serials staff handle these.  In any case, I would also
appreciate it if any of you law libarians could send this posting to
one of your lists.

We have noticed recently that West Group packing slips have changed.
They used to be approx. 6 x 7 1/2 inch pieces of paper that came in an
envelope on the outside of the box. They are now peel off labels. These
new labels are hard to handle and the staff here have called West to
complain.  We use these packing slips for inputting invoice information
into our online system. They are saved until the actual invoice comes
(around once a month) and travel along with the invoice since they show
the charges per title.

The other change we have noticed is that they used to break down
state tax on the packing slip - these amounts are entered into
our online system in a different fund code. This information is no
longer provided on the packing slip. The customer service rep. I spoke
to said that the new invoice will show this detail, but we have not
seen one of these yet. Once we see a new version of the invoice our
concern might be alleviated (or aggravated, we're not sure yet).

In the mean time, our staff's main complaint is that these packing
slips are hard to handle and keep, don't always peel off correctly,
etc.  The customer service people at West Group seem well aware that
customers do not like this change.

If your library is receiving these new labels and your staff find them
troublesome, please complain. Maybe they will listen if enough people
call them.

Thanks,
Jackie Byrd and Mary Ruble
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
[via Eleanor Cook - cookei@appstate.edu]