---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 13:17:19 EDT
From: Diane Lewis <DILEWIS@IGSRGLIB01.ER.USGS.GOV>
Subject: Re: "Postal problems"

I agree with the poster who said that subscription items just seem to need
claiming more than ever before.  And, since I'm blessed at home
with a wonderful postal person, I have to add some things
to the discussion on the Postal Service.  From discussions
I have had with chance-met strangers who happened to be postal
employees, I can report that their lot is NOT an easy one.

Saddled with categories of mail no private company would undertake to
deliver,  machines that force a pace that humans find hard to meet,
tortuous routes (of which my development is one), and difficult
supervisor-employee relationships, it is a wonder any of our mail is
properly delivered. Having lived in varied locations throughout the
world, I can speak from experience when I say that our mail service is
far superior to most.

My observation-based opinion is that our claiming problems might also be
the result of by delayed publication schedules, computers that bump us off
mailing lists for no reason, payments that aren't recorded at the
vendor, and general clerical slipups on the part of  new/underpaid/harrassed
(choose one) staff at the publisher or vendor who are, like us, trying
to "do more with less." Everyone is being squeezed right now and one
truly wonders when those with the power to change the situation will
wake up.

Diane M. Lewis
Serial Records & Exchange Librarian
U.S. Geological Survey Library