2 messages, 82 lines:

(1)-----------------------
Date:         Tue, 3 Dec 1996 14:42:54 -0500
From:         Steve Black <blacks@ROSNET.STROSE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: street address

Today's renewals (all addressed to our library, all billed to our
vendor) from University of Illinois Press, postmarked Nov. 25, 1996
include bright yellow cards that say:

"IMPORTANT! NEW U.S. POSTAL SERVICE ADDRESS REGULATIONS

Please review your mailing address as shown on the enclosed renewal
notice.  If it does not dispay a complete street address or a box number,
the U.S. Postal Service cannot create a bar-coded delivery label.

By correcting and completing your address. . .you can insure speedier
delivery of your journal issues -- and you can help us contain the costs
of bulk mailings."

  The key to receive the bulk rate would appear to be the 4-digit Zip Code
extension.

************************************************************************
Steve Black
Reference, Serials and Instruction Librarian
Neil Hellman Library
Albany, NY  12203                                  "Cogito eggo sum"
blacks@rosnet.strose.edu                     (I think, therefore I waffle)

(2)----------------------
Date:         Tue, 3 Dec 1996 16:42:30 EST
From:         Albert Henderson <70244.1532@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject:      USPS regulations

USPS regulations not only call for a "street" address and ZIP+4, the address
must be identifiable on the USPS address database!

The USPS calls their new system CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System). It
asks mailers to use certified software to match each address to their
database. The software verifies the street address, ZIP+4 and modifies
details such as spelling out Saint Louis (for St Lous) to meet USPS specs.

Many colleges and universities contributed to the USPS database, in order
to speed delivery of mail and ease the load on the campus mailroom. Others
have not done so and there are constant error messages and short bar
codes.

My best recommendation is to identify barcoded mail that is addressed in
an acceptable way and to provide that address to all vendors, publishers,
agencies, etc.

Albert Henderson, Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY
70244.1532@compuserve.com
---------------------------
Steve Murden wrote:
> Second, I have noticed a consistent notice in all of the renewals
> from Mary Ann Liebert.  It says:
>
>      New postal regulations require that we have complete street
> addreses for our subscribers.
>
>      Please check your address as shown on this renewal form.  If
> your street address is missing, please fill in the required street
> and number information on this form and return to us along with
> your renewal form.
>
>      By correcting your address, you will ensure faster and intact
> delivery by the postal system.
>
> Can anyone tell me what those new postal regulations are?  At my
> university, all mail is delivered to the university post office,
> and is dsitributed centrally from there.  We are not allowed to
> have direct mail delivery at our libraries.  In our case, putting
> the street address on our mailing labels would only cause
> confusion.  If I received my personal mail through a PO Box, they
> certainly would not require me to list my street address (or the
> street address of the PO) on my incoming mail.  Is this another
> case of someone misinterpreting postal regulations?  Or (a worst
> case scenario), another case of the USPS setting illogical
> regulations?