---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 19:42:27 -0500
From: Hannah King <KINGH%SNYSYRV1.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Re: EXCHANGE RATES (Ron Akie)

I appreciate Ron's reply to my message on exchange rate practices.  I
had told him that I thought his reply to me was the most precise and
clear statement I had yet heard from a vendor on this topic.  And he
clears up one issue -- at what time are the exchange rates applied.
I had understood that vendors charged the rate in effect at the time
the order was paid and that they could not be exactly sure what date an
individual library's order was paid.  Ron Akie clarifies that the rate
in effect and used in calculating the price charged to a library is the
date that an order was placed.  So, if I'm checking the prices invoiced
with the publisher's list price I find on the cover, all I need to do
is add the exchange rate in effect at the time the title was ordered.
And if that's not listed on the invoice, I can phone and ask my vendor
when they placed renewal orders with publisher x.  Then I can check the
exchange rate in effect at that time.  Since, fewer and fewer publishers
use a floating exchange rate, verifying the accuracy of invoices should
become easier over the years.

As an aside, did you all know that publications of the American Hospital
Association do not list an institutional price?  Librarians must call
AHA to find out the price charged to libraries!  I find this somewhat
disconcerting and I question the ethics of such a practice.

Hannah King
SUNY HSC Library at Syracuse
kingh@snysyrv1
kingh@vax.cs.hscsyr.edu
766 Irving Avenue
Syracuse, NY  13210
315-464-7109
315-464-7199