Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:50:17 -0500 From: "John Lucas" <jlucas@rowland.umsmed.edu> Subject: Re: Why EBSCO? -- Cynthia Hsieh Hello Cynthia: I think I probably responded before but here goes. As a medical library, we are using a number of subscription agents. I always felt Faxon was the best. (in my opinion it was the owner [ divine ] that did them in. There are still a few smaller agents out there. We have been using for at least a decade Faxon, Ebsco, and Swets/Blackwell and Matthews for continuation type titles Over the last five years we have added Harrassowitz (out of Germany) but they have an office here and are trying hard to earn our respect and business. With the Faxon debacle, we are going to try Basch for a small number of titles to see how they work. (we want to try and balance our exposure on any one agent. For the biggies, each has some good and not so good points. (MY OPINION for aspects I deal with) 1. Claims. Ebsco, S/B and Harrassowitz Matthews as well, can accept electronic claims from the major ILS systems. (Faxon was the first one) Basch is supposed to have as well. I have not yet set it up yet. 2. Service. All provide good service in terms of having an initial contact person for your account. Harrassowitz forwards your phone and e-mail requests to their Germany Headquarters. Their philosophy is a little different. Their people are assigned publishers who work with just those publs. This is good for European publications they are close. The Ebsco and Swets (and Faxon) are having an individual (team) assigned to you the customer. They then contact whatever publisher is needed. 3. Claims responses. All send you some sort of printed response to your claim. Harrassowitz sends a single piece of paper for EACH title so you can file alphabetically and keep track of(?) It is also larger then 8.5X11 but not quite legal size. S/B and ebsco have multi titles on each page. Right now, I prefer the S/B version which is clearer. The Ebsco one for me looks "like a photocopy of a mimeographed form" I really feel they need to improve this. If they can integrate the Faxon forms into their system for invoice, claims, etc, I think they would be GREATLY IMPROVED ! ! (Remember this is only MY OPINION) 4. Journal discounts and early payment/renewals. In the recent past, we have had some difficulty with receiving these payments back from the agencies (E and S/B) but this seems to have been resolved. We try to take advantage of any early renewal and prepayments. We use the money we get back for whatever database, journal, etc. that it is needed for. 5. Journal Renewals: All can provide timely quotes. Example. In May 2003, we request from all the agencies, a quote for 2004 based on the final 2003 price (which they should have from the publishers by this time) and add X % inflation factor for '04. For Harrassowitz, they provide the quote as an electronic e-mail attachment. It will look exactly like the Invoice. (their account is a little smaller than the others and does not take as much time) The others still get theirs quickly. 6. Moving titles/Claim numbers. Both Harrassowitz and S/B have smaller number strings that are unique to a title TO YOUR Account. If a publication changes title, that number is transferred to the new title. Ebsco has a larger alphanumeric string that first identifies your instution and account and then uses the title number as the last 9 digits. If a publication changes title, that claim number will change, Usually the last 3 or 4 digits of the 9. For these, I usually call in and get the new title # which I change while I am on the phone with my customer service person. Also if there is a change such as the journal now offering e-access as a bundled price or something different, the number will also change. For this, Ebsco sends an e-attachment of the old title/new title with all the information about the change in electronic status. I just change the title number and all is good to go. If you are moving titles to another agency or are adding alot of titles, check with the customer service person. They can provide you with a printed list of the title and the "claim ID Numbers in a barcoded format which in our case ( and probably most) be compatable for you to wand in the appropriate field in your ILS. Enough, I am tired and want to go home. In a nutshell, If you can, try and balance out between agents and see which one works for you the best. If not, get quotes from those you think you want to go with, give them the title list, AND GO WITH THE ONE THAT WILL GIVE YOU THE BIGGEST DISCOUNT ! ! ! John Lucas Serials Librarian University of Mississippi Medical Center 2500 North State St Jackson, MS 39216-4505 (PH) (601) 984-1277 (FAX) ( 601) 984-1262 JLUCAS@ROWLAND.UMSMED.EDU ----- Original message ----- Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 14:37:05 -0700 From: "Cynthia Hsieh" <chsieh@uop.edu> Subject: Why EBSCO? Hi, I am new in serials and have seen quite a few former Faxon customers chose EBSCO as an alternative. Just curious to find out if it is because EBSCO is an excellent subscription agent or because there just aren't that many choices out there? Can libraries using EBSCO share the reasons why they chose EBSCO as their agent? Thanks! Cynthia Hsieh Head of Technical Services/Assistant Professor University Library University of the Pacific 3601 Pacific Ave. Stockton, CA 95211 Tel: 209-946-2571 Fax: 209-946-2810
