Some years ago at another library, we had an Ebsco person, not our
usual sales rep, who negotiated with the manager of an on-campus
fast food restaurant to donate subscriptions to the library of
about a dozen popular titles. Ebsco provided those clear plastic
protective covers with a label giving the restaurant credit for the
gift. The titles weren't always exactly ones we would have chosen,
but it still was a win-win deal for students, the restaurant, and
the library (maybe even Ebsco?). The magazines were definitely
well-read. I don't know if the program still exists, but maybe your
Ebsco rep can tell you.

The only problem I can recall with this arrangement was assigning
someone to put the magazines into the plastic folders. The folders
are a good idea, though, as they identify the "lounge" copies and
protect them a bit.

Roberta

--On Tuesday, May 03, 2005 10:15 AM -0500 Tricia Jauquet
<tjauquet@PNC.EDU> wrote:

> Hi--
>
> My director is thinking of buying extra subscriptions to several
> popular titles and scattering them around the "lounging" areas of
> the library to increase readership and keep the browsers happy.
> We would keep one subscription as an archival copy since many of
> these issues will undoubtedly go missing.  Has anyone done this
> and run into problems with it?
>
> Has anyone out there done library business with University
> Subscription Services?  They're significantly cheaper than vendor
> prices for many of the popular titles.  Would there be any big
> advantage to getting these titles through our regular vendor (we
> use EBSCO) and just paying the $30-$50 extra for each title?  Any
> advice you could give me would be very welcome.  Thanks in
> advance.
>
> Trish
>
> Tricia Jauquet
> Technical Services Librarian
> Purdue North Central Library
> 1401 South US 421/LSF Building
> Westville, IN 46391
> (219) 785-5234
> (219) 785-5501 (fax)