Re: Claiming online issues Ohler, Lila A. 27 Feb 2007 15:11 UTC
Hi Dan, Thanks for your comments. My guess is that your library is a very different size from ours. Otherwise, I would love to know which publishers, or service, you are dealing with that in your experience, access is so quickly restored! We do have reports of loss of access and/or missing years or issues from our users, but again, we carry so many titles, that it would not be wise to rely on reports from users in order to find out if there is a problem. And I say this because in our experience resolving loss of access between vendors, hosting sites, and publishers is hardly ever easy, or fast. (Note to publishers here, self-service registration is a nice touch, especially if we have to re-register a title!) We are no different from any other library in that the first of the year is usually when most loss of access due to order problems or hosting platform changes come up. I believe the latest discussion of problems of this sort on this list was for the Taylor and Francis titles on their new Informaworld platform. But otherwise, for situations when we have to claim access, it can sometimes take repeatedly emailing to the publisher or having our serial vendor repeatedly contact them, or repeatedly checking back to see if the access has been restore. In the case of the recent Taylor and Francis example, this process has taken almost two months to resolve for some of our titles. Or at least I'm hoping it is finally resolved, as I see another email from their representative in my inbox! Thanks! Angie Lila (Angie) Ohler Acquisitions Librarian University of Oklahoma Libraries Serials Dept, LL211 401 West Brooks St. Norman, OK 73019 Phone: (405) 325-2142 Fax: (405) 325-1893 Email: lohler@ou.edu -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Dan Lester Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 3:42 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [SERIALST] Claiming online issues ----- Original message ---------------------------------------- From: "Ohler, Lila A." <lohler@OU.EDU> >But I think it depends on the library. In my library's case, as in >yours, we continue to carry print. And if we are to continue to devote >labor toward claiming print serials, with an assumption of "need" for >those issues on the part of the end user, then I cannot justify not >claiming electronic serials. I think you're doing an "apples and oranges" comparison. Yes, there can be problems with publishers messing up your subscription, changing URLs, and so forth. However, you can have that type of problem with print titles, as well. With electronic what you don't have to worry about is the items getting lost in the mail, run over by a truck, shredded in some machine along the way, and so forth. And, of course, in the long run you don't have to worry about missing issues when you're going to bind. >From the experiences I've had, if a title is missing in whole or in part, it'll get reported very quickly by a user, and you can almost always have access restored very quickly, too, and certainly much quicker than a missing issue or volume can be mailed to you, assuming the publisher even has any to send. Online missing issues or volumes are different enough from the problems of claiming paper issues to make me seriously doubt whether it is worth the time. dan Lord, I never complain, never ask why, but please don't let my dream run dry dan@riverofdata.com Dan Lester, Boise, Idaho, USA