3 messages, 57 lines:
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Date:         Sun, 5 Apr 1992 10:54:55 -0400
From:         Donald J Morton PhD <dmorton@UMASSMED.UMMED.EDU>
Subject:      Unsolicited Journals, etc.

     We, too, have been plagued with unsolicited serials that are
of no value to our clientele.  We attempt to recognize and discard
them as quickly as possible with the involvement of a mininum of
staff time.

     Perhaps even more insidious are unsolicited invoices for
serials and books.  These require careful checking to be sure
they aren't inadvertently mixed and paid with legitimate ones.

Don Morton
Umass Medical Library
Worcester, Ma 01655
dmorton@umassmed.ummed.edu

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Date:         Sun, 5 Apr 1992 23:19:00 CST
From:         TSANDERS@AUDUCVAX.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Unsolicited Journals

I agree that unsolicited materials are a problem but there seems to be no
way around them.  Those I really object to are those from major publishers
where they start sending you the thing as part of your subscription to
something else, then want to bill you for it separately after you have
(presumably) made these available to your public long enough for them to
be used to seeing it.  I also object to being unable to split subscriptions.
A lot of what we throw out is newsletters which come with things we want--
I'd like to see that paper and postage and handling not wasted.  I don't even
expect to get the basic subscription cheaper.  But convince the publishers to
modify mailing lists? NOT.  (As my teenager would say.)  As a sidelight, now
that we can suppress records from OPAC display, we have begun setting up
brief records for our discard titles, previously represented only in a card
file, to simplify processing.  I was shocked to see how many titles we were
discarding where the discard decision was made 10 or more years ago.  A number
of these older cards have notes that letters to the publisher were unavailing--
we were going to get the thing no matter how much we begged not to.  What a
waste to receive and discard a title every month for 14-15 years.

Thomas Sanders, Serials, Auburn University, AL (tsanders@auducvax)

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Date:         Sun, 5 Apr 1992 15:44:58 EST
From:         Martha Kellogg <OJS101@URIACC.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Unsolicited Journals

Our library, too, received a year's worth of unsolicited Chinese journals
from an unnamed publisher familiar to all of us, followed finally by a
letter and survey they wanted us to fill out about these journals.  I was
amazed at the gall of this publisher!  I returned the survey with a comment
to the effect that sending unsolicited journals at a time when their prices
were going through the roof was terrible policy.  I could have gone on at
great length about all the reasons librarians object to this practice, but
I kept it short.  It does indicate that some publishers just don't get it
when it comes to the problems libraries are having with staffing and costs.