We are considering consolidating our approval plan, and many of our firm
orders and serial subscriptions under one vendor (The Blackwell Group).
If anyone has either done this or is considering doing it, we would like
to hear from you.  We have approximately 10,000 continuation orders
through a variety of vendors.  Specifically we are concerned with the
following issues:

1.  What cost savings have you been able to achieve with this approach?

2.  What problems have been encountered in converting a large number of
subscriptions from one vendor to another?  What are the staffing and
service implications?

3.  What kinds of assistance in the conversion process is it reasonable
to expect from the new vendor?

4.  We normally try to work with vendors in the country of publication.
What problems can we anticipate with using a British vendor for a French
or Spanish publication?  Does this result in higher costs due to multiple
currency conversions?

Thank you for any information you can provide.

Judy Fox
Head, Cataloging and Classification Services
Washington University Libraries
St. Louis, MO  63130
(314) 935-5421
jfox@library.wustl.edu
jfox@wulibs.bitnet