Dear Karla,

I have been a Serials professional working in public and academic
libraries as well as with serials vendors for many years. I think you
should meet with WT Cox as well as EBSCO.  You might contact Swets
Subscription Service and even Harrassowitz as well for meetings. Basch
Subscription Service is another good agency.  All those aforementioned
are good vendors. Subscription agents in the United State operate
nationwide, rather than regionally.  Most have regional offices, but
there really is no such thing as a vendor who just serves the Midwest.

All of these vendors would be pleased to come to you and explain their
services and prices.  You would end up being much better informed to
make a decision.You are a major public library and the customer is
still king in vendor library relationships.

Meeting with several vendors would give you a lot more information
about the services available and let all know you are in the market
for a vendor and put you in a good position to negotiate favorable
terms.  Inform EBSCO of what you are doing and ask for them to respond
as well and to address problems you have and to review your terms of
service.

By the way, subscription agency and  serials vendor are the most
common terms currently.  everyone understands what a jobber is, but it
isn't much used in common parlance.

Good luck!

Arlene Moore Sievers-Hill
Collection Management Officer

Case Western Reserve University
Kelvin Smith Library
10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44106
USA

Telephone: (216) 368-3328
Fax: (216) 368-3669
Email: Arlene.Sievers@case.edu

On 4/3/12, Blumberg, Maria <mblumberg@huntington.org> wrote:
> I am de-lurking here.  First hi Natalie it's Maria at the private research
> library you used to work at. :)  Midwest does handle standing orders, but
> not periodical subscriptions.  They may however know of a Midwestern jobber
> that handles periodical subscriptions.  I have been processing and receiving
> standing orders from Midwest for years and have found them reliable and
> courteous.
>
>
> Maria K. Blumberg
> Serials  Assistant
> Huntington L:ibrary
> 1151 Oxford Rd.
> San Marino, CA 91108
>
>
>
> From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
> [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Natalie Zagami
> Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 12:56 PM
> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Jobbers (are they still called that?)
>
> Funny you should mention "Midwest" and "book jobbers" because "Midwest
> Library Services" is a "book jobber!"  See their website below :)
>
> I had a wonderful experience with them in my previous position at a private
> research library where I was able to queue orders electronically with our
> integrated library system and check for status reports.
>
> http://www.midwestls.com/
>
> Hope this helps and best of luck!
>
> Natalie (Zagami) Lopez
> Bibliographic Access Services
>
> California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
> University Library
> 3801 W. Temple Ave.
> Pomona, California  91768
> Business Phone:  (909) 869-3110
> Fax:  (909) 869-3103
> Email:  nmzagami@csupomona.edu
>
> From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
> [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Bennett, Karla
> Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 12:22 PM
> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject: [SERIALST] Jobbers (are they still called that?)
>
> We are considering switching to another company for our magazine
> subscriptions and standing orders.  Currently, we are using EBSCO.
>
> WTCox comes to mind, we considered using them a couple of years ago, but
> decided against them because they seemed to be having problems with their
> new database.  Would one of their customers, please, give me feedback
> regarding their customer service and the ease of use of their database.
>
> Something I didn't care for much, was the fact they won't allow the customer
> access to their missing copy bank (mcb).  So many times we have found the
> issue we need from EBSCO's mcb, but only after many searches.
>
> Can anyone suggest a different company to use for a public library in the
> Midwest?
>
> Karla Bennett
> Wichita Public Library
> 223 S Main
> Wichita, KS 67202
> p: 316-261-8582
> f: 316-262-4540
> To read fast is as bad as to eat in a hurry. -Vilhelm Ekelund, poet
> (1880-1949)
>
>