We have that problem with newspapers all the time.  Washington Post is one
of the offenders.  Even when they come from a nearby city, we still have
the same problem.  We will even get several different issues of the same
newspaper at the same time.  We wait until they come in.  Most of our
titles get claimed after two weeks.  The Los Angeles Times we wait 3 weeks
on.  The Washington Times we wait 4 weeks on.  If we claim before these
time periods we wind up getting many duplicates.  We find that many times
they issues will finally arrive.  We have tried talking to the post office.
Didn't
work.  Can't help you with your online newspaper questions.

Jean Shankle
Pensacola Christian College Library
Pensacola, FL

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU]On Behalf Of BORCHERT, JAMES
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 10:57 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Late Newspapers, etc.

Hello, we have been having a problem with a couple of our newspapers
coming late.  The two worst offenders are the Boston Globe and the
Washington Post.  These papers are arriving between 7-10 days late.  We
purchase these titles through Ebsco, they have contacted them and have
been told that there is nothing we can do because they come through the
mail.

My questions are: Does anybody else have this problem (not necessarily
these titles)?  And what did you do about it?

I have one other, semi-related question.  Because of this problem, we
have considered switching these titles to an online-only format.  Does
anyone have any experience with this?  Among others, I'm concerned about
providing enough computers to maintain a suitable level of access as
well as cost of downloading.

Thank you in advance,

James Borchert
Serials Department
H.M. Briggs Library
Box 2115
South Dakota State University
Brookings, SD 57007-1098
James.Borchert@sdstate.edu <mailto:James.Borchert@sdstate.edu>