I've been toying with the idea of doing a random access check every day.
Just drop a list of titles or packages (with access url's) to which you
subscribe into an array and have a php or perl script randomly select
one every day of the week and print it to a webpage where you could just
click on the link and go.  That way you'd be proactively checking access
year-round rather than reactively during problem periods.

In most cases I imagine all would be well and you could go on with your
day and other times, but less often, you'd discover a problem before it
became a problem.

Opinions?

Chad E. Hutchens
Electronic Resources Librarian
Montana State University Libraries
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT  59717-3320
(406) 994-4313 phone
(406) 994-2851 fax
chutchens@montana.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Andrea Serra
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 2:52 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Constantly losing E-access in the beginning of
the year

Patty,

I would be interested to hear how others are handling this problem. I
tend to check access as the confirmations come in as well as checking
the "worst offenders" at this time of the year but would love to hear
if someone's discovered a more efficient way. Of course, our
reference librarians and patrons will tell us if something is not
working but it would be nice to have a jump on it.

Andrea
Library Assistant, Electronic Serials
Vassar College Libraries
anserra@vassar.edu

At 04:16 PM 2/20/2007, you wrote:
>Hello Colleagues,
>
>Every beginning of the year (about January-March) our library loses
access to
>several online journals of which we actively subscribe.  We work
through a
>serials vendor, and they contact the publisher whenever we lose access.
The
>reason for lost access may be a  payment discrepancy, license signing
need,
>IP address question or some kind of incorrect information in the
publisher's
>record for our subscription.
>
>I know this problem of early-year lost access occurs with many
libraries. I
>would like to hear your ideas or best practices on how to avoid losing
online
>access.
>
>Some ideas that I have considered:
>--Requesting a letter from each publisher in December verifying that we
have
>paid for the subscription and that we will have access (we would have
our
>agent do this, but it is still time-consuming)
>--Requesting a refund for each day that we do not have access
>
>Please share your ideas.  I will summarize for the list.
>
>Patty Wood
>Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.