Has anyone else received an invitation to be included in the 2006-2007 edition of National Register's Who's Who in Executives and Professionals?

I spent about 15 minutes on the phone yesterday with one of their representatives, giving him brief biographical information, after which he mentioned that this publication could not be purchased by libraries (one copy is sent to the Library of Congress), that it was only available to its 110,000 "members" from the U.S. and Canada * for one of several prices, of course.  He stressed that people from the government, business, and military establishments would be listed (among others) and they certainly wouldn't want someone in a public library photocopying their information and then contacting them ...  They sound very much like a vanity publisher to me.  (One of the items they offered to provide me with was a plaque citing my membership in their publication (no relation to Marquis Who's Who) that could also include my library's logo and my picture.)

Only afterwards did I go to their website (http://www.nationalswhoswho.com/html/aboutus.cfm) or check OCLC.  I imagine their sales rep. would be horrified to know that there are 8 other libraries besides LC who own one or more volumes of this serial (OCLC #42440411).

BTW, this solicitation did not come with my ALA membership number on it.  The letter simply states: "Your name has been provided to our office from one of several sources we employ."

It will be interesting to see if I even get a rough draft of my profile to review before this edition goes to press.  :-)

Karen Nadeski

Project Cataloger, Connecticut History Online
Connecticut State Library
231 Capitol Ave.
Hartford, CT 06106
860-757-6544 (voice)
860-757-6559 (fax)
knadeski@cslib.org
http://www.cthistoryonline.org/