----------1
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:28:39 -0500
From: "Sandhya D. Srivastava" <LIBRSDS@Mail1.Hofstra.edu>
Subject: Re: Price increases for 2003
Content-disposition: inline

You may want to check and see if you asked for electronic access.  Sometimes they
charge more for paper + electronic, and sometimes the electronic is free.

Sandy Srivastava
Serials Libarian
Hofstra University

>>> sharman@MDHS.ORG 11/19/02 03:01PM >>>
Dear Serialist wisdom;

For the last few years I've been involved with serials pretty much from
the cataloging end only.  At my previous job I had enough experience
with all the wild things that can happen to journal subscriptions to
last til I retire. Some other poor soul handles all that here.  However,
the library director just showed me some figures that have me wondering.

Our library has Ebsco as a subscription agency.  Several months ago we
paid an invoice that was a 10% increase over 2002 and was supposed to
take care of 2003 price increases.  This week we received a
supplementary invoice that increased the total price of our journals by
about 1/3.  The library director did a spot check of various journal
publisher web sites and found the institutional prices listed there were
sometimes as much as half of what Ebsco was charging.  I realize we're
paying a fee for the subscription agency's services, but this
discrepancy seems awfully large.

Has anyone else had this experience with Ebsco or other vendors?

__________

Susan E. Harman
Associate Director for Technical Services
Maryland Historical Society Library
201 W. Monument St.
Baltimore, Md. 21201
410-685-3750 ext. 362
fax 410-385-0487
sharman@mdhs.org

----------2
Subject: RE:      Price increases for 2003
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:08:59 -0600
From: "Skwor, Jeanette" <skworj@uwgb.edu>

***We have Faxon.  They send out individual notices when titles increase
substantially in price, giving us the option to cancel our subscription.

***I will say, we've gotten more of those than usual this year, and the individual
price increases were often steeper than usual.

***In no case, however, am I aware of Faxon charging us more than we could get the
title elsewhere, and if I ever became aware of such a thing, I would cancel it with
Faxon and order it from the cheaper source.

***Vendors do not (should not) be making their money by charging us more than the
going rate.  They earn it through bulk orders and by having our money to gather
interest until they pay the publishers.

Jeanette L. Skwor
Serials Dept., Cofrin Library
University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
2420 Nicolet Drive
Green Bay, WI  54311-7001