Re: Newspapers, etc. Thank you! Carol Morse 23 Mar 2005 20:19 UTC
James, It has nothing to do with the agent, all to do with the way the PO processes mail that isn't 1st class. We had an interesting situation with the Seattle Times (we are in WA, but on the other side of the mountains). They used to offer delivery in our area, but could no longer afford to do so. They would have given us a discount for a mail sub (I imagine it would come a day late). But they also offer full-text content back to 1990 (minus the ads and want ads and certain other features). They do let you see the want ads for the current day. This policy is very generous. Most papers let you see only the last 1 to 7 days online unless you pay. We are monitoring the situation until next fiscal year, when we will decided whether or not to take the print or not. I know that most people prefer to hold the physical paper in their hands. This has been since Mar.1, and we haven't had any complaints yet (knock on wood). We are quite fortunate in that our State library contracts with Proquest for their online database. The contract includes the NY Times full-text, including the current day and going back to 1995, and certain newspapers from WA state (or whatever state you're in). Maybe you could negotiate something with Proquest. Good luck and have a great day. Carol Morse ******************************************** Address: Walla Walla College Library Periodicals Dept. 104 S. College Ave. College Place, WA 99324-1159 Carol Morse Serials Librarian morsca@wwc.edu 509) 527-2684; fax 509) 527-2001 ********************************************* >>> James.Borchert@SDSTATE.EDU 3/23/2005 6:44:54 AM >>> Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and offered their suggestions. I learned that we are most definitely not the only library that has these problems. Unfortunately, we have no news kiosks; our campus bookstore doesn't carry the titles we need and the only Borders we have is on the other side of the state. I contacted Barnes and Noble (only an hour away!), but they do not distribute newspapers either. Perhaps there is more we can do in negotiating contracts with subscription vendors because while the actual problem lies with them or the publishers, we [libraries] are blamed by the patron for not providing the newspapers in a timely manner. This is something we definitely do not need as libraries are seemingly becoming less popular anyway and we are trying to make ourselves more attractive to increase our gate counts. Thanks again for all of your comments! James James Borchert Serials Department H.M. Briggs Library Box 2115 South Dakota State University Brookings, SD 57007-1098 James_Borchert@sdstate.edu