I agree with Kim's excellent response below.   Swets is trying to do us a
favor, let's not shoot the messenger!   We would rather have this
information and make a quick decision than lose access unexpectedly and
have irate users.  We each need to analyze our local processing and
determine what method of working with our vendors works best for our
operations.

Trisha Davis
Head, Serials and Electronic Resources
The Ohio State University Libraries

At 10:34 PM 10/11/2004, you wrote:
>I guess that depends upon what expectations you have of your subscription
>agent.  Swets, or any subscription agent, doesn't set the pricing options:
>the publisher does.  When you say "their deadline of October 8th" I'm
>assuming you mean a deadline set by Swets.  Your subscription agent sets
>deadlines for decisions such as these so that they can process your
>renewals in a timely manner and hopefully neither your print nor online
>access will be disrupted.  You didn't mention the publisher of these titles
>where online was formerly free with print and now you have to pay (was it
>one publisher, more than one?).  Maybe Swets wasn't informed by the
>publisher of these decisions until very recently, and could only pass the
>options on to and request decisions from you when they knew what they were.
>
>My suggestion is that you have a discussion with your sales and/or customer
>service rep at Swets to figure out if they can meet your expectations.  If
>you expect them to give you more notice than a week or two to make renewal
>decisions such as these, let them know.  If they can't do that (for
>example, if the publisher doesn't give them enough notice), then they
>should explain why.  You pay them a service charge, they provide a
>service.  Tell them what you need, and they'll tell you if they can
>provide it.
>
>Good luck!
>
>Kim Maxwell
>
>_______________________________________
>Kim Maxwell
>Serials Acquisitions Librarian
>Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>MIT Libraries, Room 14E-210
>77 Massachusetts Ave.
>Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
>phone: 1-617-253-7028
>fax:   1-617-253-2464
>email: kmaxwell@mit.edu
>
>At 01:28 PM 10/11/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>>Are other libraries upset that Swets only gave us a little over a week
>>to decide whether we want to pay for online titles that were free from
>>the publisher? They gave us three options: print plus paid online,
>>online only or print only. We had to scramble to make a very hasty
>>decision in order to beat their deadline of October 8th.
>>
>>
>>
>>Aimee Algier
>>Head of Serials
>>Orradre Library
>>Santa Clara University
>>aalgier@scu.edu
>>
>
>Trisha L. Davis
>Associate Professor
>Head, Serials & Electronic Resources Dept.
>The Ohio State University Libraries
>1858 Neil Avenue Mall 404N
>Columbus, OH 43210-1286
>Phone:   614  292-6314
>Fax:        614  292-2015