We also use EBSCO as our serials agent and normally I'm pretty happy with their service. However, we have a situation I'm very unhappy about. An overseas irregular publisher with whom we subscribe to a single title through EBSCO triggered an EBSCO invoice for a volume many months ago that we've never received. The publisher also claimed months ago that we can't cancel it because "it already shipped" (in April, supposedly, from South Africa - nothing takes THAT long anymore). EBSCO is insisting we pay the bill (and now we're running into late "finance charges") despite the fact that we never received the item. I thought the point of an agent was to solve problems, but in this case EBSCO has made the publishers' failure to deliver the product (that we don't even have any proof actually exists, given the irregular pub cycle) into OUR problem. It would have been easier to deal directly with the publisher because we could more easily ignore an invoice from someone we aren't doing hundreds of thousands of dollars of other business with.

Melissa Belvadi
Collections Librarian, UPEI


On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 12:53 PM, Diane Westerfield <Diane.Westerfield@coloradocollege.edu> wrote:

We have EBSCO as subscription agent and LaTisha La Rue is our fantastic customer service rep at the LA center. We get wonderful service from them. We have about 570 subscriptions through EBSCO and what a pain it would be to have to renew each one separately! Whenever something odd comes up, 99% of the time EBSCONET is correct and if there are any problems, it’s usually on our end.

 

We have a handful of titles I have to subscribe direct for and I really dislike those. Who enjoys struggling through various websites, trying to find mailing labels, and reconciling the purchasing card statements?

 

Referring to the earlier delayed publication thread, I think that’s a difficulty brought about by publishers, and not the subscription agent’s fault.

 

Diane Westerfield, Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian

Tutt Library, Colorado College

diane.westerfield@coloradocollege.edu

(719) 389-6661

(719) 389-6082 (fax)

 

 

 

From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG] On Behalf Of Palmisano, Jennifer (UTC)
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 9:05 AM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Ordering direct from publishers

 

Hi Robert,

We decided to start circumventing our serials vendor and do all new ordering directly with publishers.  Maybe this speaks volumes about our particular vendor, but I’ve found that I do the same amount of work either way so we might as well save a little money by not paying a third party.  Some publishers send a crazy number of renewal notices, so that is a little bit of a pain, but otherwise I’d say its worked out for the best. 

 

There were a few cases where I had more luck getting in contact with a small publisher than the vendor did, or the publisher was more up front with me about publications on hiatus or cancelled than the vendor.  I can’t say for sure that the vendor had the same information, but I found it disappointing that they were trying to renew titles that I knew were cancelled. We now have access to more periodicals electronically as a result as well.  Many of them included a limited number of electronic licenses with a print subscription, but we never knew because we didn’t specifically request it from the vendor.

 

I’m a solo librarian at a small state government agency, and our serials still dominate a lot of my time. But again, it seems like I spend about the same amount of time on them as I did with the vendor.  However, now I feel like I have more control over it and that I have more complete information about all our subscriptions.  I might feel differently if we had a larger collection.  

 

Best of luck!

Jennifer

 

 

 

Jennifer Palmisano

Librarian | Utilities and Transportation Commission

jpalmisa@utc.wa.gov | 360-664-1199

 

UTC Library Services | PO Box 47250 | Olympia, WA  98504-7250 | http://www.utc.wa.gov/

 

“Libraries are about people, not books or technology.” – R. David Lankes

 

From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG] On Behalf Of Robert Terrio
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 5:40 AM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: [SERIALST] Ordering direct from publishers

 

Greetings,

Does anyone out there have experience with circumventing a serials vendor and ordering (and claiming) journal titles direct from publishers? This is directed at libraries or library branches with smaller collections.

I'd be curious to hear of your experiences, positive and negative, if any of you have tried this, or are currently doing this.

Many thanks!


Robert Terrio

Talbott Library
Westminster Choir College of Rider University
101 Walnut Lane
Princeton, NJ 08540
Phone: 609.921.7100 ex. 8296
Fax: 609.497.0243

 

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--
Melissa Belvadi
Collections Librarian
University of Prince Edward Island
mbelvadi@upei.ca 902-566-0581



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