Date:         Fri, 31 May 2002 17:13:48 -0400
From:         ZICK_LAURA@Lilly.com
Subject:      Comments/advice, please:  subscription vendors:  EBSCO,
              SwetsBlackwell, divine.com
To:           ARL-EJOURNAL@CNI.ORG, BUSLIB-L@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU,
              DIGLIB@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA, SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU

We are reviewing our options for a subscription vendor, looking
specifically at divine.com, SwetsBlackwell, and EBSCO (Corporate Service
Center).  I see some posts in list archives, but wonder if any of you can
provide advice, raves, rants, etc. on the following specific points:

quality of customer service -- do you think this is more dependent on the
company or on the individual assigned to your account?
on-site customer service rep -- do you have an on-site customer rep?  do
you prefer this arrangement?  do you recommend it?
global service -- is customer service consistent globally?  are your
affiliates well- and expediently served?
integration (or lack thereof) with book vendors -- do you buy books
through your subscription vendor?  if so, how's the performance?
negotiating/managing e content purchase and access -- does your vendor
negotiate deals for e-journals?  do they negotiate well on your behalf? do
they coordinate access for your users?  do they provide reliable usage
statistics to you?
who has the best user interface?
what do you wish they would do for you that they do not currently do?
have you done a formal evaluation (RFP?) of the three that you would be
willing to share?

If you prefer, reply to me offline (zick_laura@lilly.com); I'll summarize
back to the list.

Many thanks!
Laura Zick, Information Scientist
Library & Information Services
Eli Lilly and Company
Lilly Corporate Center, DC 0737, Indianapolis, Indiana 46285 USA
zick_laura@lilly.com; voice: 317.277.1236; fax: 317.276.4418