We just did this last year.  We're the only state where all 51 public
library are part of one system.  Swets sent us a nice letter saying they
were not the appropriate vendor for public libraries, at least those with
our type of collections.  Not enough STM in our collections.
Basch, Cox and EBSCO all submitted complete proposals, and were all very
similar in their offered services.

Charles L. King
Serials Librarian
Hawaii State Library
478 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96813-2994
http://www.hspls.org/serials/serials.html

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Flury
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 5:25 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Subscription Jobbers

We are preparing our every three year rfq for provision of subscription
service. What companies are libraries in our category (35+ public libraries,
in the neighborhood of $500,000 annual subscription expenditures) using for
this service thse days? EBSCO, W.T. Cox, Wolper and Popular are big in
public libraries. Swets and Harrassowitz are out there, too of course
although I wonder if they might be more than we need. I don't know very much
about Basch but they are another possibility. Many, many years ago we used
to work with a Michigan-based company called Reginald F. Fennell but I don't
know whether they are even in business any longer. And of course there are
online vendors such as Amazon.com and others that some libraries work with,
too.

I'm not looking for reviews/critiques of service, good or bad, but rather
just input as to what others are doing. The subscription jobber world
changed a great deal with the demise of Faxon/RoweCom/divine. I just want to
make sure that I am not out of touch with that changed world.

Thanks for your input.

Jim Flury

Jim Flury
Head of Acquisitions Services
The Library Network
13331 Reeck Road
Southgate, MI 48195
734-281-3830
Fax 734-281-1817
jflury@tln.lib.mi.us