To:     Members of ACQUNET and SERIALST
        Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues

From:   Ann Okerson

Re:     Insectes Sociaux

You will probably remember the Insectes Sociaux news items which
Marcia recently updated in NSPI.  The journal, which had been
published by Masson, was moved by its editors ultimately to
Birkhauser.  While a different sort of move might have suited
library pocketbooks a little more, and the American section (of
the Union for the Study of Social Insects) supported a switch to a
domestic/U.S. publisher, nonetheless, the international group as a
whole benefitted from the change.

We have been contacted by Walter R. Tschinkel, Professor and
President, North American Section of the IUSSI and asked to "help
out" with an unfortunate situation that has arisen as a result of
this publisher change.  In the renewal process (fall 1991) for
1992, the then current publisher (Masson) was paid.  I am
speculating that Masson did not notify vendors; if they knew, the
vendors did not get their files changed over in time to send
checks to Birkhauser.  Thus the situation is that Masson has the
money and Birkhauser is receiving the mss.   This, unfortunately,
leads to a nasty situation in many regards, the least of which is
that the journal cannot be produced.

I suggested to Dr. Tschinkel that I would describe the situation
to the widest possible American academic audience via e-mail and
seek the following actions from readers:

1.  Please notify the academic vendor community, so that they may
take appropriate actions.  Specifically, those of you who can,
please connect to Blackwell, Faxon, Ebsco, Harrassowitz and all
the others (sorry not to enumerate all; I'm running for a plane).
Some of these vendors may be able to assist with the European or
international subscription customers.

2.  If you are one of the subscribing libraries, write to Masson -
- if you have time to do this.  Perhaps someone could post a form
letter on the Net for everyone else to copy.  This type of
behavior deserves the strongest objections, which might include,
ultimately, mentioning the possibility of reviewing the
publisher's titles on one's local subscription list.

3.  Take whatever other action you feel would be appropriate so
the correct publisher can be paid.

4.  Please keep me informed about the actions you are taking.
Either post to SERIALST or Acqnet, or send me a message to my e-
mail account:  OKERSON@UMDC.Bitnet, or OKERSON@UMDC.UMD.edu. I
would like to save a comprehensive file to forward to the Society
when this situation is resolved.  For your information, I have re-
keyed Dr. Tschinkel's letter to me.  He maintains a great deal of
humor in a difficult situation:

THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
Tallahassee, Florida
Department of biological Science

March 7, 1991

Ann Okerson
Association of Research Libraries
1527 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20036

Dear Ms. Okerson:

In response to our encouraging phone conversation this morning, I
am sending you what material I have on the great Franco-Swiss war,
involving Masson and Birkhauser.  The handwritten note is from the
editor of Insectes Sociaux, Johann Billen (Zoological Institute,
University of Leuven).  The list annotated by him is one which I
compiled from the OCLC listing of libraries subscribing to
Insectes Sociaux.  All those with question marks are libraries for
which we do not know to whom they sent their subscription money.
As the note says, 140 subscriptions have been received by Masson
for a journal which they no longer publish and for which they have
no manuscripts.  On the other hand, Birkhauser, the new publisher,
is sitting there with the manuscripts but not all the money.

Your offer of sending this out to libraries and subscription
agents is most welcome and most generous.  I am very grateful for
the help, and our society will be too, once they find out.

I look forward to the next phase in the campaign.  Should we
approach General Schwarzkopf?  I hear his schedule is slacking up
a bit.

Thank you so much for your help.

Sincerely,

Walter R. Tschinkel
Professor

NOTE:  Because of the length of this file, I will reproduce the
(?) U.S. list in the next e-message, so we don't crash any e-mail
boxes.