I feel that Barbara Eastland raises a few issues worthy of their
own discussion.

On Friday, 19 April:

        Barbara says:
    "If everyone knows everyone else's precise discount, the vendor at some
    point will be forced to eliminate the variances, resulting in a standard
    fee per thousands of dollars, and there goes any financial gain a tight
    serials budget needs!"

        Financial gain for whom?  at whose expense?

        Vendors are in this business to provide value added service in
return for a profit.  This is a good thing.  I become interested to the
extent that I feel they are earning a fair profit, one which my library can
afford, one which relates directly to the quality of service my library
receives from the vendor.

        Should vendors offer a flat service charge based on the dollar
volume of business?  No.   Do they?  I don't believe so, at least not as
the sole factor in determing the service charge.  [Any vendor
representative is welcome to step in and give a better description.  Jane,
Alison, Tina, Kit, Mary, others, please do.]

        In the negotiations I've had with my vendor representatives,
we've discussed the factors which contribute to the service charge.  My
understanding is that there are three main factors which need to be
considered when determining the service charge levied with the library
customer--the discount offered by the publishers represented by the
subscription list, the ease or difficulty when working with these
publishers, and the total volume of business.  If my mix of titles contains
a high proportion of high publisher-discounted titles from publishers who
provide dispatch data and invoicing through EDI, the vendor is able to
offer me a lower service charge, sometimes even no service charge. Were my
mix of titles comprised mostly of no discount titles, the service charge
understandably would be at a higher rate.  This is no secret.  Every
acquisitions and serials person should know this--I hope!

        Of course there are other factors which contribute to the overall
service charge--how promptly do you pay your bills?  how extensive is your
usage of the vendor's services?  how easy/difficult is your account to work
with?

        One of the vendors Cornell uses, Harrassowitz (not mentioning any
names), publishes a list of titles they will supply to libraries at a 0%
service charge.
        Another of Cornell's vendors, Ebsco, offers us a list of publishers
whose titles they will service at a 0% service charge.
        B. H. Blackwell's offers their Europlan wherein a library
consolidates their British and Continental European subscriptions to
realize a reduction in the service charge.  They also advertise a volume
discount advantage and clearly state what that advantage is.
        All of Cornell's vendors offer a discount off the annual service
charge for early payment of the renewal invoice.
        This is public information.
        Again, the service charge I pay is only as good as the value added
service the vendor provides for this fee.  A super low service charge may
look good on paper, but if your staff have had to double their effort to
maintain the subscriptions, your library has probably not benefited from
the low service charge.

        I get worried when I imagine that Library X has negotiated a
'special' deal with Vendor Y.  Why is this?  I don't want my library's
service charge to subsidize someone else's.  I know that some libraries do
better than others when negotiating service charges.  This is a testament
to how well informed the negotiators are with all of the factors involved
in the cost of the service and level of profit to be realized. Negotiators
become well informed through open and honest communication.

        The more open the process is made by vendors and librarians, the
better we all feel that we have negotiated the best and fairest deal.
After all, there aren't too many libraries remaining which can claim that
they don't have tight budgets.

        Back to the issue of ethics:  I try to follow ALCTS's 'Statement on
Principles and Standards of Acquisitions Practice.'  You can locate a copy
at:
(gopher://ala1.ala.org:70/00/alagophxiii/alagophxiiialcts/alagophxiiialctset
hics/50714036.document)

I've listed a few below:

"In all acquisitions transactions, a librarian...
        - subscribes to and works for honesty, truth and fairness in buying
and selling, and denounces all forms and manifestations of bribery;
        - fosters and promotes fair, ethical, and legal trade practices

        Are there other opinions out there?  Does anyone else care?  Please
express your opinion and contribute to the open and honest communication
this listserve allows us to share.

        Thank you.

        Respectfully,

        Scott Wicks,
        Acquisitions Librarian
        Cornell University Library