---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 10:40:52 -0400
From: Dan Tonkery <tonkery@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: VENDORS PLEASE JOIN IN! (Lesley Tweddle)

Too often vendors are concerned about which messages they should respond
and which they should ignore as a response would be too much marketing .  I
would hope that everyone on the list is aware that all of the major vendors
read the messages on a constant basis.  Many of our staff are also
registered users.

We don't want to use the discussion forum as a marketing/sales venue but
try to respond when we have something to offer to the discussion.

In response to Lesley's comments, I believe that vendors are very concerned
our library clients and the trend that we see in all of our markets.  That
trend is the continuing reduction in staff in the technical services area
and especially the decline in "serials specialists".  Everyone is under
budget pressure and there is a clear pattern to remove the professional
librarian from the acquisitions and management of serials process.  In many
institutions the serials and acquisitions staffs have been merged, when the
serials librarian retires the function is merged with another department.

All of this pressure to reduce costs impacts the quality of service that
the local library is able to deliver to the end users and it impacts the
vendor's services as well.  Too frequently the type of questions that we
now get from our clients miss the filtering that the professional serials
specialist brought to the job.  Claim levels have been climbing from the
ILS systems as many libraries do not have the time nor resources to keep
the local database up to date.  Vendors are impacted when the library
changes the resources in support of serials acquisitions and processing.

Vendors, such as Faxon have seen a decline in the serials specialist and we
do miss that link in the process.  As we move more into the e-journal
world, some management types are promoting even further reduction in the
technical services staff as most of the books and journals will be
delivered to the desk-top and the role of the library will change.

However, even with desk top delivery there is still a volume of work to be
supported, and the acquisition of the e-journals may in fact require more
work than the print journal so for the immediate future your vendor will be
an important player in the access and management of e-journals.

For a lively discussion of these issues, plan to be a member of NASIG,
attend one of the annual conferences, or read the proceedings.  This
organization is the one library organization that is most focused on these
issues and is a forum where the serials librarian, vendor, and publisher
can come together and discuss these issues in a friendly environment.

Vendors are constantly trying to meet the service demands from our clients,
follow national or international standards, develop new products and
services and still offer an affordable service.  We depend on the link to
our clients and have had many years of strong dependable relationships and
look forward to maintaining those relationships in the future.

The amount of work performed by both the library and the vendors staff in
support of the serials collection is substantial and often overwhelming. We
owe a great deal of thanks to both of these groups for delivering the high
quality service day in and day out often without any praise.  Well done
indeed.....

Dan Tonkery

At 09:15 AM 6/2/98 -0400, you wrote:
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 09:55:40 GMT
>From: Lesley Tweddle <LTWEDDLE@AUCEGYPT.EDU>
>Subject: VENDORS PLEASE JOIN IN!
>
>Thank you Jeanette for excavating my posting from its "New
>Periodicals Librarian" bundle and re-poting it under its original
>header.  I too had hoped it would stimulate the vendors to join in.
>They have a story to tell, no doubt.  Already affected by the
>cancellations due to high publishing prices, they now face having
>Internet access sidestep the business they depend on.
>
>Salaries are the usual victims of the managerial knife in thin times,
>cutting back on quantity or quality, or redistributing it into
>the planning of big strategies to avert disaster, leaving too little
>for the boring business of getting the goods to the customer.
>
>Libraries ought to know all about that.  If you ask our readers what
>they want, chances are they'll say very simply, To find the book fast
>and in its right place on the shelf.  Which librarian built a glittering
>career on _that_?
>
>Providing staff quantity and quality at the level which will please
>serials librarians, costs the vendor.  Is there a commensurate benefit
>to the vendor?  Do serials librarians sway the library's final choice?
>Or do the bosses' eyes gleam at the "bargain offer"?  The boss has a
>boss, who may not be a librarian at all.
>
>Vendors and libraries will need each other for quite a while still.
>The more we know about each other, the better.
>
>Lesley Tweddle
>Serials Librarian
>American University in Cairo Library
>
Dan Tonkery
President and COO
The Faxon Company
781-329-3350
781-326-5484 (f)
tonkery@faxon.com