---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 21:57:37 -0500
From: Albert Henderson <70244.1532@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject: Postal Service & Claiming at UNM

Cory Meyer <cmeyer@BIBLIO.UNM.EDU> writes:

> A few years ago our library changed it's name from UNM Medical Center
> Library to UNM Health Sciences Center Library.  We notified our
> subscription vendors and they contacted the publishers to inform them of
> our name change.

> Shortly thereafter the Postal service changed their regulations and
> required the addition of a "street" address to all labels.  That proved a
> problem for us since we are not located on a street...but within the
> campus environs.  When publishers started to deny our claims, we were
told
> that a street address was required by <their> postal branch.  When we
> tried to confirm this with <our> postal branch we were told that no it
did
> not apply to us since we had what is considered an institutional zip code
> with the final 4 digits of the nine digit zip being the signifier for our
> building.

[snip]

My copy of the USPS database indicates that your "street address" -- which
is the line above the "city-state-zip" --  is "UNIVERSITY CAMPUS" with
numbers in the range of 1 to 10. Zip 87131 is devoted to University of New
Mexico.

In other words, to pass bar-coding software used by publishers (who get
attractive discounts for compliance with USPS automation standards)
your address should read something like:

HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY NEW MEXICO
10 UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
ALBUQUERQUE NM 87131-5686

Actually, one software package chokes on this formulation and
changes the +4; another accepts it and prints a nice label with
bar code.

It seems to me that lots of universities have identified the
BUILDINGS on their campuses AS STREET NAMES with boxes or
rooms as numbers so the USPS can deliver the mail. It shouldn't
be such a problem considering the waste you describe. Let them
just do this for your library -- "1 Health Sciences Library" -- and put it
in the USPS database. My guess is your problems would clear up.

Albert Henderson, Editor,
PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY
70244.1532@compuserve.com
.
.
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