This is in reply to Martha Coleman's post:
Discussion about the infamous "J" note has been going around on LAW-LIB
for a few months. It is very interesting to see it showing up on SERIALST
now.
Just to correct one of Martha's assumptions, Georgetown Publishing House
sent out this ad to apparently all (or at least a whole lot of)
librarians. They probably mass produced the "magazine page", and then had
some low paid people write up the post-it notes saying "Try this, It Works
-- J". The initial is always "J".
This caught me way off guard when one of our faculty members (whose
name starts with "J") sent me an ad for another title (totally unrelated)
with a note saying something like, "We should get this -- J". I almost
threw out his order!
Anyway, that tidbit aside, the practice appears to be a one-time situation
(at least for now), but if it works who knows what they'll try next.
******************************************
*** ***
*** Jim Mumm ***
*** Acquisitions / Serials Librarian ***
*** Marquette University Law Library ***
*** 1103 W. Wisconsin Avenue ***
*** P.O. Box 3137 ***
*** Milwaukee, WI 53201-3137 ***
*** ***
*** mummj@vms.csd.mu.edu ***
*** TEL : (414) 288-5351 ***
*** FAX : (414) 288-5914 ***
*** ***
******************************************
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> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 10:43:22 -0500
> Reply-To: Martha Coleman <mcoleman@systema.westark.edu>
> From: Martha Coleman <mcoleman@SYSTEMA.WESTARK.EDU>
> Subject: Blind invoices & professional ethics
>
> I would like to add a tidbit to Rolly Harwell's post. I have received 2
> pages that appeared to be torn from a magazine advertising The American
> Speaker: Your Guide to Successful Speaking by Aram Bakshian, Jr. from
> Georgetown Publishing House. The page has a yellow sticky note reading
> "Martha, Try this. It Works! (signed with the letter J) Our
> president's first name is Joel. It occurred to me that it would be
> easy to compile an address list of librarians and their college's chief
> officer's first name. Since there is no Sales Representative noted whose
> name begins with J, I became suspicious that a sales rep was hoping that I
> was a busy librarian and would order this $297 item based on the
> assumption that "Joel" wanted it and told me so personally. Sneaky.
>
> Martha Coleman, Serials/Reference Librarian
> Boreham Library - Westark Community College
> Fort Smith, AR mcoleman@systema.westark.edu
>
