The U.S. Geological Survey Library uses several vendors for
portions of its 10,0143 annual retained serial receipts.  The issues
are still shipped directly from the publishers, however.  We have
not yet contracted for checkin services.

The option of having issues shipped to the vendor and then shipped
on to your library, even without checkin by the vendor, would
probably delay receipt more, unless sent by courier service, which
would be quite an expense in our case.

The only way that our vendors know that an issue has not been
received is if we notify them.  And that requires careful claiming
review, which we lack the staff time to perform promptly or
consistently.

Sorry that we cannot be of more help.

Diane M. Lewis
Serial Records Librarian
USGS Library, Reston, VA, USA
<dilewis@IGSRGLIB01.ER.USGS.GOV>

Isabelle Copin wrote:
> If some persons of the list have experienced this service, I would like
> to hear what you think about it. In particular, is it as quick as the
> post delivery, for titles published outside and inside the country where
> the library is ? Some vendors propose delivery with checkin, or delivery
> without checkin. In the 2nd case, by what mean do they know what they
> send ?