Thanks so much to everyone for your very helpful responses.  I've
experienced a few vendor switches in my career and the change was
never done willingly.  It's always good to have advice/guidance on how
to make such a transition less traumatic - just in case.

Regards,

Pa,

On 2/1/12, DAVIS, ROGER <rdavis@kent.edu> wrote:
> All I can attest to is that our switch to Swets was smoother than others. We
> provided them with our shelf list from our online system along with the
> expiry date and it plugged in with a minimum of fuss. There was some overlap
> in subscriptions for a few issues but we encounter that even with the same
> vendor sometimes during renewal, which I blame mostly on the publishers not
> the vendor. The old vendor subscriptions were simply allowed to expire as
> Swets renewed the titles.
>
> I don't know if this is a problem anymore, but sometimes the smaller vendors
> couldn't get the titles we wanted, especially the international titles. I'm
> impressed with the Swets catalog in that if we want it and they don't have
> it, they will get it. There are always problems with any vendor. It may be
> claims, renewals, electronic access but I've found that the most crucial
> aspect is the account representative for you library. I've encountered some
> that only want to attend to the large accounts and let the smaller library
> accounts take the back burner. We have a comparatively tiny collection but
> are a part of a larger multi-campus university. Our account however is
> handled as if it is an individual unit.
> I know that sometimes large vendors don't want to handle small accounts but
> that has not been my experience with Swets. If you are not comfortable in
> your interviews with your account representative for prospective vendors,
> then by all means, don't sign up with them.
>
> My biggest headache is claims but I don't know of any serial librarian who
> doesn't have these headaches no matter what vendor they have.
>
> Roger
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
> [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Pam Scott
> Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 5:33 PM
> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SERIALST] vendor question
>
> Hi Roger,
>
> Regarding your switch to Swets - what made the vendor switch smooth?
> Do you think it's that the publishers are better prepared to handle
> such changes or do you think it has more to do with the subscription
> vendors?  We switched many years ago - just when the e-access was
> starting to grow - and at that time it was extremely painful.  I think
> our library's management of e-journals (using Serials Solutions, etc)
> and by less reliance on access directly through our subscription
> vendor might make a switch easier now.  I would appreciate any
> feedback that you could give.  We are considering a switch from Swets
> to Ebsco.  Although we dread the process, the service we're receiving
> from Swets has been poor.
>
> Regards,
>
> Pam Scott
> Librarian
> Tripler Army Medical Library
>
>
> On 1/23/12, DAVIS, ROGER <rdavis@kent.edu> wrote:
>> I've had the "privilege" of changing serial vendors three times in the
>> last
>> 15 years. There are good points and bad for each vendor and it depends
>> somewhat on the size of your collection if one will be better for you than
>> another. I will say that our last switch to SWETS was the smoothest I've
>> seen. It was seamless and we had very few problems with publishers.
>>
>> Roger
>>
>> From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
>> [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Coakley, Lynn
>> Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 2:47 PM
>> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
>> Subject: [SERIALST] vendor question
>>
>> hi all:
>>
>> A colleague at a neighboring college asked me for information about
>> periodicals vendors besides Ebsco of which they are a customer.
>> Apparently
>> an audit turned up the fact that there are other vendors that are cheaper.
>> Personally, I think the agony of getting titles transferred from one
>> vendor
>> to another is not worth the lesser cost, but that's my opinion.
>>
>> I told her I would ask this list for ideas of a different periodicals
>> vendor
>> that you love (or that you hate), I'd love to have that info.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Lynn
>>
>> --
>> Lynn Coakley
>> Coordinator of Technical Services
>> Library
>> Springfield Technical Community College
>> One Armory Sq.
>> Springfield, MA  01102
>> 413.755.4565
>> fax 413.755.6315
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Pam Scott, MLISc
> Technical Information Specialist
> Tripler Medical Library
> 1 Jarrett White Road
> Tripler Army Medical Center, HI  96859-5000
> Ph: 808.433.6391
> Fx. 808.433.4892
>

--
Pam Scott, MLISc
Technical Information Specialist
Tripler Medical Library
1 Jarrett White Road
Tripler Army Medical Center, HI  96859-5000
Ph: 808.433.6391
Fx. 808.433.4892