Our experience is that we can almost always get agents involved in
journal package deals. We condition most of our journal package
purchases by making sure that our vendor is part of the equation. There
is very little reason to give up the quality control an agent provides,
from our experience, and several reasons to include them.
And a couple of our "deals" are deals that our agent found and
negotiated.

Chuck Hamaker
Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
Atkins Library
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223
phone 704 687-2825

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Howlett, Lee Ann
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 3:51 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] [Fwd: Re: [SERIALST] Aggressive vendor, not
understanding a librarian's function]

I think the economy is part of the problem.
However, we have found that for our
electronic only journal packages, it's easier
for us to order directly from the publisher.
I've talked with a number of other librarians
who are doing the same.  This has to be
hurting journal vendors.  We only use
a vendor now for the small number of print
journals we subscribe to along with electronic
journals that are not part of any consortial
packages.

Having said this, it still makes no business
sense to insult and/or threaten librarians and
their libraries.

____________________________________
Lee Ann Howlett, MA, AHIP
Head, Serials Dept.
Shimberg Health Sciences Library
University of South Florida
12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC 31
Tampa, FL  33612
(813) 974-9080
Fax (813) 974-7032
LHOWLETT@HEALTHLIB.USF.EDU