I also use Registration Tracker regularly. Like Paivi, I sometime find that the subscription ID is not always there or on the Ebsco invoice (as a "Pub ID"), and I use the "contact us" e-mail on the publishers site to ask for it. Usually, it's a number they put on the mailing label of the print version, but all mailing wrappers are discarded before I get the issues. For electronic-only subscriptions I generally don't have that problem.

So many e-journal platforms now expect the administrator to password in to update our profile that I'm glad to have a place to record all the different passwords I need to keep up our registrations. My college does not have an Electronic Resources Management System (and buying one would cost SO much more than EJS Enhanced), so I use it for lots of details like that. Unlike Paivi, my college does accept online access that is password controlled if it comes with a print subscription, and since we have the EJS site proxy protected, I post EJS "access notes" if we have passwords we are allowed to share among our faculty and students. That way only our folks can get as far as the access notes and read the password if they are off campus, and they really appreciate not having to come in to get to those articles. (We are a mostly commuters campus).

What I like best is having one place to record registration info. I started a file of licenses years ago, then realized that it had more registration info in it than license info. Also, I soon discovered I had filed new registration notices without pulling old ones, so it got messy. Since EJS Enhanced, I only keep licenses on paper and I replace old information registration when I add new. What I don't like is anything I have to look up elsewhere, and I think Paivi is right that usually that's a publisher's subscription number.

Judith Stokes, Serials Librarian
Rhode Island College
600 Mount Pleasant Ave.
Providence, RI 02908
401-456-8165
jstokes@ric.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum on behalf of Rentz, Paivi H
Sent: Tue 11/28/2006 1:41 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] EBSCO's Registration Tracker

I have used the Registration Tracker quite a bit.

1) The Tracker does frequently provide the URL to register. And it does
state what piece of information is needed for registering (customer id
or subscription id). However, the code needed for registration is
frequently not present or it may not be correct. Frequently, I've ended
up contacting the publisher asking for the number if I cannot find it
Ebsco's Ownership & Access report or the Ebsco invoice, which are the
other two places I have occasionally found the necessary codes. It seems
like many times the publishers do communicate the information to Ebsco
but the information does not make its way to the Registration Tracker,
which is unfortunate because the code is the critical piece in the
registration process.

2) I have entered notes to record the customer number, to indicate when
resource is authenticated via user name and password only, i.e. not
usable for us, if there's anything else I want to remember about the
registration (such as IP access only on 5 workstations). I now
frequently come across these notes and they've been helpful many times.

3. I like the notes and I dislike the incompleteness of the registration
information.

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Zinik, Davette
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 12:34 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] EBSCO's Registration Tracker

Hello,

Does anyone on Serialist use EBSCO's Registration Tracker?  If so, I'm
interested in hearing your feedback regarding the following questions:

1) Does it provide vital information you need in order to register, such
as customer numbers, instructions for registering and authenticating
content, etc.

2) What type of notes do you enter?

3) Does it help you manage the registration process of your e-journals?
What do you like most/least about it?

Thank you,

Davette Zinik
Serials Acquisitions
Auraria Academic Library
1100 Lawrence Street
Denver, Colorado 80204-2095
303-556-2625 (tel)
303-556-2623 (fax)
davette.zinik@cudenver.edu

http://library.auraria.edu
Serving University of Colorado at Denver/Health Sciences Center;
Metropolitan State College of Denver; Community College of Denver