I can't say enough about EBSCO. I am new to my current position and my customer service rep and other support staff have been phenomenal. However, you should be aware that the $10.00 charge mentioned earlier is known as a "net" title charge. The only way to ascertain whether or not a title is indeed a "net" title is to call your customer service rep. EBSCONET is very capable but will not tell you this information. I am on a campaign to change this! Please email EBSCO if you are in agreement.

Regards,

Larry

Larry D. Richmond, Jr.
Serials Acquisitions Librarian
Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
800 Vine Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Voice: (513) 369-6923
Fax: (513) 369-3167
Email: larry.richmond@CincinnatiLibrary.org

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU]On Behalf Of Carol Morse
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 12:15 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Starting up with Ebsco

We had a pretty good experience with Ebsco. Our customer service rep is
excellent and goes to lengths to help us. Of course there are the titles
from subscription houses and the Haworth titles that are a pain under
any system. They tried to bring all our titles to a Jan. start date
right away (or Sept. for school-year publications), unless the publisher
didn't allow. So some titles would be invoiced for 13 months, 17 months,
etc. They usually charge $10.00 more for a little-known title not listed
in their catalog. The last couple of years, we have moved certain
popular titles to a Nov. or Oct. start since that's when the fulfillment
people start the subscription (when they get the check). They don't stop
to look in their database to notice it's a continuation, not a new sub.
It seems to go a little more smoothly that way. They issued us a set of
barcodes when we first started that we could scan into our system order
and checkin records for the Ebsco title nos. As you add new titles, of
course you must input them manually. There some titles that we still
order directly. Some publishers like Reader's Digest, Guideposts,
Prevention, and now Sierra refuse to go through vendors.
Hope this helps,
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
*********************************************

>>> meedwards@AII.EDU 4/5/2005 7:32:16 AM >>>
Hello!

We are a small academic library with approximately 300 magazine
subscriptions.  Since we're an art/design/culinary school (primarily,
although we'll be adding other non-art programs through a sister
school), our subscriptions range from popular, to business, to
art/culinary/video specific.  As expected, some of our subscriptions
are
from overseas or from smaller independent publishers.  We have never
used a subscription service and I would like to start using one to
help
streamline the whole thing.

My questions for you Ebsco (or other vendor) users are:

            How easy was the "normalization" process of expiration
dates
when moving from in-house to subscription?  We have a variety of
expiration dates, based on each publication and how they were renewed
(single or multi-year).  I'm sure we can phase this in over time, but
that leads to the next question.

            Over time, did the cost of your overall subscriptions
start
to balloon because of the differences you found in what your service
charges for each subscription vs. going directly to the publisher?
I've
noticed that the differences in cost, in some cases, are pretty
substantial.

How did the service charge you for those publications that are not in
their catalog?  There are several we get that I don't see in Ebsco's
catalog.

            Were there publications (e.g., free trade magazines or
newspapers) that you didn't have the subscription service handle?  If
so, was that problematic to staff in check-in or claiming?

            Did you have any problems with your service that were
"righteous pains" to resolve?  I know this can vary regionally, so if
any Southern California users want to weigh in on this one, I'm all
ears
(all eyes??)!

I would love to simplify my life by starting up with a service, but
want
to call on the collective wisdom to prepare for the "gotchas"!

Many thanks!

Mary Edwards

Librarian

Art Institute of California - Los Angeles

2900 31st Street

Santa Monica, CA  90405

310-314-6154

meedwards@edmc.edu