Greetings,

          First, my thanks to all of you who responded to my bindery
questions.  Here is a very brief summary of the fifteen responses I
received regarding those concerns.

          Five of the eight messages regarding Houchen or
Everett/Houchen were primarily positive on their pickup, production and
customer service.  Two gave mixed reviews on these issues.  And one
chose an alternate bindery after finding Houchen's service unacceptable.
One also recommended ICI as a possible binder.

          For Heckman, one requested a summary only, two gave positive
reviews and four expressed mixed feelings regarding Heckman's service at
this time.

          All of you gave me great insight into both the pros and cons
of remaining with our current binder and/or changing binderies.  I
really appreciate your help.

          At this time I am happy to say that Sally Rhudy of Heckman
called this afternoon and the situation, we hope, is now on its way to
being resolved.  As several of you surmised, our scheduled pickup was
skipped because we did not have material returning from the bindery due
to its being previously returned via UPS.  This simple change from a
scheduled pickup for September to a November delivery by UPS, due we
understand, to a production backlog, driver problems and new customer
representatives, led to a major disruption in service affecting not only
our library but several others as well.

          For those experiencing similar difficulties, we now know that
there is a pickup form that needs to be filled out for Distribution and
it is my understanding that the request form is available on their
website.  Sally admitted there had been serious miscommunication between
our library and Heckman since we were already scheduled for monthly
pickups and were in frequent contact with Customer Service regarding
this issue.  But any change in the delivery routine on your part or
Heckman's may require you to send a "Request for Pickup" to
Distribution.

          So we now have a request for pickup for the week of January
30th.  We are, however, keeping our options open for a future change in
binderies.

         Good luck and thank you for responding,

         Nora Edwards

          UT-Dallas