I would recommend caution about establishing policies or guidelines to restrict or limit communication with vendors. You might want to check to see if ALA has published guidelines on this topic, but communication is a two-way street.

I do sometimes tell sales representatives that I prefer e-mail for price quotes. I do not like to have to scribble price information on a piece of paper while I am on the phone. I want a better paper trail. If I am not interested in a product that a sales rep wants to talk about, I tell them as firmly or politely as possible that our funding is not expansive enough to include that particular database, journal, etc. However, I am wary of trying to restrict communication beyond specific situations.

I do sympathize with the time element!

--
Sarah Tusa, Associate Professor
Coordinator of Collection Development
& Acquisitions
Mary & John Gray Library
Lamar University
Ext. 8125

From: "Doralyn Rossmann" <doralyn@MONTANA.EDU>
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 12:41:07 PM
Subject: [SERIALST] Library communication with vendors

I’m curious if other libraries have developed any policies or guidelines for communication with vendors. Between on-site visit requests, telephone calls received, and emails received from vendors, I find time-management to be challenging around these relationships.

To be consistent and clear with vendors, I’d like to develop some policies which might make this communication less time intensive. For example, might we limit vendor visits to a specific month or two of the year or only when we request an on-site visit? And, could we say we prefer email to telephone communication?

I realize vendors have their own time challenges and needs to communicate so I want to respect that. How do others manage the communication relationships with vendors?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Doralyn

Doralyn Rossmann
Head of Collection Development

Associate Professor

Montana State University Library

P.O. Box 173320

Bozeman, MT, USA 59717-3320

(406) 994-6549

doralyn@montana.edu

doralyn.org

@doralyn on Twitter

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