>From the phrasing of the publisher's response (and the note on the website),
it sounds as if you paid for a membership, to which membership MAC's
publications during the year were an ancillary benefit, as opposed to paying
for a subscription to a specific number of issues of a specific title. It's
annoying when publishers do things this way rather than directly offer
subscriptions to their publications, but it's not particularly unusual.

Keith Chaffee
Librarian II
Acquisitions Department
Los Angeles Public Library
opinions are mine, not the library's, etc., etc.

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU]On Behalf Of STEVE
BLACK@FACULTY@ACADEMICAFFAIRS
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 6:26 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] claim for Archival Issues

The response my library received for a claim was unusual, and I would
like to know what others think of this publisher's claims policy.

The Midwestern Archives Conference (MAC) web site states: Institutional
Membership brings your institution the following benefits: Archival
Issues, MAC's journal. . .[list of other benefits].

In response to our claim for v.28 no.2, which should have a cover date
of 2003, the organization's secretary wrote:

"This volume has not been published as of yet, but will probably be
printed sometime later this year. MAC members receive the publications
during the year that they are a member. ... [Your library] is not a
current member in 2005. Therefore your library will not receive the next
issue of Archival Issues as it only goes to the current calendar year
MAC members -- regardless of the publication date it shows on the
cover."

So although we paid for the 2003 subscription, we are not entitled to
receive it because we didn't renew for 2005.

Is this an acceptable business practice?

Steve Black
Reference, Serials, and Instruction Librarian
The College of Saint Rose
392 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12203-1419
blacks@strose.edu
(518)458-5494