Mary Lippold and Elizabeth Boyson made a good point: we shouldn't spend a
lot of time on unsolicited periodicals.  However, though I spent
more time than usual cancelling the Neighborhood subscriptions, I don't
think the time was wasted because I now know for sure that we weren't
paying for those journals and that we won't be billed for them in the
future.  I also reduced the number of junk mail journal issues we have to
handle by 8 per month.

Our policy for unsolicited issues seems to be similar to Ms. Boyson's: If
the title is on the "discard if received" list, issues are tossed in the
recycling bin.  If it's not on the list, especially if the mailing label
shows a subscription expiration date (as the ones from Neighborhood did),
I attempt to find out why we're getting it.  If there's no good reason
(a title change would be a good reason as would a gift subscription for
something useful; a gift subscription for something useless is not a good
reason), I ask the publisher/vendor to stop sending the title.  If we
continue to receive issues after that AND we're not being billed for them,
the title is added to the discard list and future issues go straight into the
recycling bin as do any "renewal" notices for that title.

BTW, I had an interesting one a few weeks ago: We received an
unsolicited issue with an expiration date on the mailing label and within a
day or two we also received a bill for our "subscription" to that title.
When I called the publisher to explain that we hadn't ordered it, the woman
I spoke to INSISTED that we had.  To prove it, she told me that they always
ask for the birth date of the person placing the order and she gave me the
date.  Unfortunately (for her), I'm the only one here who places journal
orders and it wasn't my birth date.  I don't know if this is a new
marketing tactic or if we've got a practical joker ordering journals in the
library's name, but I've never had a publisher use (attempt to use?) a
birth date for verification before.

And then there was the notice which said that "Mr. Wahlert M. Library"
was one of the "outstanding students" who'd been "carefully selected" for
inclusion in one of those national directories where you have to buy a
copy or ten to get your name listed.  The notice went on for several
paragraphs about that careful selection process, too. ;-)

Di Neumeister
Serials Asst.
Wahlert Memorial Library
Loras College
drneumei@lcac1.loras.edu.