First of all, thank you to everyone who sent a reply. There were a lot of
great tips that will be of use. Here is a brief summary of the 14  resonses
I received:

-- 11 use some form of electronic claiming

-- 5 people said they claim only up to 3 times
-- 2 people said they claim 2 times
-- 1 person said he/she claims 4 times
-- 1 person claims 10 times
-- 1 person keeps a claim active for 6 months before taking other action
-- 1 person keeps a claim open for a year

-- 6 people also follow up claims made through a vendor with the publisher
-- 3 people recommended working with the customer service representative
(vendor) after 3 claims

Back issue dealers/ lists
-- 6 people use back issue dealers or backserv/backmed to fill in missing
issues

Useful Tips:

-- Send backissues to dealers and lists and use those lists to fill in
missing issues

-- If you've had problems with a certain journal in the past, deal with the
publisher directly

-- Send proof of payment to the publisher or have your vendor do it with the
first claim

-- If you deal with the publisher, keep notes on who you spoke with, when
and when the issue will arrive

-- Ask your vendor to send an individual message to the publisher about your
claim

-- Work with your vendor customer service representative closely and keep
notes on results and if problems persist look at other vendors when the
contract is up for renewal

-- Claim in a different form for follow up claims -- send email or telephone
your vendor customer service representative

-- BEFORE claiming check your vendor's list of delayed titles and check in
information that they have available to see if the issues are in print

-- Ask the publisher for a pro-forma invoice (which might contain more
information about how to obtain back issues)

-- Hold off on binding titles with missing issues for 5 years and bind in
table of contents for missing issues --
*****

Again, thank you so much for everyone who responded! I heard from a variety
of different size libraries and types of libraries. One small library had
about 700 subscriptions and a large one I heard from had 2300 subscriptions
and 5 vendors. The point that was repeated the most was that one should deal
with the customer service representative as often as needed, even after the
first claim is filed. Reminders sent to vendor customer service
representatives and proof of payments sent to publishers was another great
idea on how to cut down on claiming response time.
*****

Deb Ham
Serials Associate
Reinert Alumni Memorial Library
dldham@creighton.edu

Creighton University
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68178
402-280-1802 (phone)
402-280-2435 (fax)