Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 13:04:36 -0500
From: Susan Andrews <Susan_Andrews@tamu-commerce.edu>
Subject: Re: Mis-addressing of labels (Was: Claiming Statistics) (Bill Cohen)

Okay, I have lurked and restrained myself through the discussion, but I
can't do it anymore.  If what Bill Cohen says below is true, I have a
question for him.  Our institution changed names a few years back (close
to the time of the new need for a street address or PO box in your
address). At that time I had massive problems with things not coming.
After major discussions with my serials vendor and me sending many
letters to publishers directly things got better.  And, for the vast
majority of my titles they remain ok.  But, due to the aforementioned
problems, I started the policy that anyone opening periodicals should
check the address label to be sure that there is **something** in that
address that will tell our mailroom (yes, we also must have our mail pass
through the campus mailroom) that it goes to the library.  If there isn't
such a designation, it is given to me so that I can send a letter or have
my vendor send a letter. There are at least half a dozen or so titles
that I have to send this letter to a least once a year, every year,
because at least once a year, the label starts to read with only the
University's name, our PO Box (a designation for the entire campus, not
just the library, and I have explained this in my letters) and the town
and zip code.  If there is no re-keying, why do I repeatedly have this
problem for the same titles over and over?

I will tell you one thing that I have started doing.  When I cannot seem
to get them to designate the library in any other way, I will sometimes
suggest that they include my name on the label.  They seem to have **no**
problems with this.

One final note, I may have made a mistake in explaining the mail room
problems.  I just got a letter today from a publisher stating that I have
been excessively claiming and that because the address is correct it must
be a problem in the mail at our end.  I checked my back records and for
the last 3 or 4 years, we stopped receiving this title with iss. #2 of
the vol. and, depending on how well the claiming worked, we wound up not
receiving from a couple issues to at least half of the vol.  Somehow, I
*don't* think that the mail room is just waiting for issue #2 of each
volume to start not sending them to the library!  But since I told the
publisher in a past letter about mail room problems, that is the excuse
that they are going to use.

Sometimes you just can't win,

Susan Andrews
Head, Serials Librarian
Texas A&M University-Commerce
P.O. Box 3011
Commerce, TX 75429-3011
Susan_Andrews@tamu-commerce.edu
(903)886-5733
"Your Success Is Our Business"

At 12:22 PM 06/18/2002 -0400, Bill Cohen wrote:
>Added notes in regard to processing renewals in the publisher's offices,
>you will not find too much "re-keyboarding" of the subscriber's name &
>address.  For renewals, almost all subscription departments simply change
>the expiration date of the subscriber--they don't have to re-import the
>full name & address in a subscribership "record."
>
>Some subscription agencies have a "Customer Number" or "Order Number"
>specific to a jouranl and a subscriber.  The fully automated publisher
>usually searches for that "number" and then changes the expiration date.
>
>Problems sometimes come about when the "ship-to" address (the "receiving"
>address) for the library change.  When there is a "new address" for the
>"ship-to," both libraries ordering directly and/or agents which provide
>the renewal should really give both the old address and the new address.
>I am sure this is so basic and fundamental that only very, very new
>librarians or library technicians/student helpers would not be familiar
>with these notes.
>
>With kind regards,
>
>Bill Cohen, Publisher
>The Haworth Press, Inc.
>10 Alice Street
>Binghamton, New York 13904
>http://www.haworthpress.com/