Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 08:30:01 -0500
From: "Skwor, Jeanette" <skworj@uwgb.edu>
Subject: RE: Q for publishers (Was: RE: Mis-addressing of labels) (Rick Anderson)

***Ah, a difference in librarians as broad as the difference in publishers,
is that it?

***We do see life darkly, as through a mirror, don't we?  And so much of
what we see is ourselves, reflected back as the world.  Those of us with
neat offices, up-to-date checkins and a claiming process that includes
checking the holdings (and arrival dates, on Innovative) of other
libraries before claiming an issue cannot fathom publishers who don't
know/believe what we do.  And those of us with perhaps a smaller staff, a
different attitude toward what may or may not have arrived, take a more
lackadaisical view, and say, hey, a lot of us are this way.

***Darn.  It was so much more fun being the good guy in the Publisher
Wars.

***Seriously, thanks for your insight.  I *do* know people (well, one
person, really well ;) with an office like you describe.  I also believe
there are more.  Once again, communication seems to be the key.  And that
brings us back, at least somewhat, to where we started.  If we know our
claims are viable, we need to communicate that to the publisher.  And if
the publisher continues to stonewall, we need to follow through.  Our
library just cancelled a $1050 subscription to a monthly magazine for
which we did not get 5 issues the first year we published.  I *know* we
did not get them. I also know all of my claims were absolutely and
totally ignored.  Luckily, it also happened to be something that was not
widely used (perhaps because almost half the issues were unavailable?)

***Thanks, Rick.

Jeanette L. Skwor
Serials Dept.
Cofrin Library
University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
Green Bay, WI 54311-7001
(920) 465-2670

----- Original message -----
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 12:59:07 -0700
From: "Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>
Subject: RE: Q for publishers (Was: RE: Mis-addressing of labels) (Jeanette
Skwor)

> And I simply don't understand why a publisher would think we
> would claim an issue we actually received???

Heck, I'm not a publisher and I can answer this one:

Experience.

Some libraries' serials departments are a complete mess (mine was one of
them when I inherited it) and issues regularly get lost under desks or in
piles.  This used to happen in my department on a regular basis.  We may
have been unusually disorganized, but I bet we weren't uniquely so.
Furthermore, I'm sure that libraries regularly claim issues that they
have not yet received, but which are in transit from the publisher.
>>From the publishers' end, that can only look like claiming something we
already have.

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno      "I'm not against the modern
1664 No. Virginia St.            world.  I just don't think
Reno, NV  89557                  everything's for sale."
PH  (775) 784-6500 x273             -- Elvis Costello
FX  (775) 784-1328
rickand@unr.edu