Re: Subscription package renewals - agency vs. direct? Tracey Thompson 24 Jun 2008 14:37 UTC
Hello, We use both vendors and direct. We are direct with one of our major publishers who does not like to work with vendors, and they do not provide EDI Invoicing. As a consequence we spend a lot of time with manual entry and reconciling list. It is time that I would prefer we spend on other endeavors. I looked at going through one of our two vendors (Harrassowitz and Ebsco), but we just can't afford it right now. One of our major benefits of working with vendors is the electronic invoicing and reporting capabilities that vendors provide. Also as titles move to different publishers, our vendors' services have been very beneficial in that they chase these changes. Often with these changes, payment gets 'lost.' Our vendor is great about working with the publisher to prove payment. When you look at moving away from a vendor and work direct with the publisher, take into account the services that you would lose. I have no easy answer in regards to reconciling title list. We have one major publisher (different than the one mentioned above) that we get through a consortium, and it is a nightmare. Our consortium deals are very time consuming. Sometimes I wonder if the price break is worth the extra man hours they require. I would be interested in hearing how others feel about this issue. Thanks. Tracey Thompson Acquisitions Librarian New Mexico State University Library MSC 3475 P.O. Box 30006 Las Cruces, NM 88003-8006 (p) 575-646-8093 (f) 575-646-7477 -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Ilyes, Henriette Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 2:17 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [SERIALST] Subscription package renewals - agency vs. direct? Hello, We are in the process of renewing our subscriptions through our subscription agent, and I was wondering if any of you out there have ever tried to order or renew your major journal packages directly with the publishers (e.g. Springer, Sage, Elsevier, etc) rather than through your subscription agent. Even though we subscribe through an agency, some publishers require us to verify the subscriptions we receive through packages directly. We are also part of a consortium, so if lists (sometimes long lists) need to be checked, I spend numerous hours on trying to figure out whose list is accurate: publisher, consortium, the agent's, or our own records. I'd like to know the following: 1. If you've done this, have you found it more effective/efficient dealing directly with publishers? 2. Have you found that publishers respond to claims, customer service questions, etc. in a timely manner? Have you found that they would rather deal with the subscription agency? 3. Do you feel overwhelmed when dealing with publisher title lists directly throughout the year instead of the "big" renewals once or twice a year? Are there any other questions or issues you encountered? Thank you. Henriette Ilyes ___________________________________ Henriette Ilyes Library Information Systems Administrator RAND Library Acquisitions (310)393-0411 ext. 7909 (310)451-7029 (fax) Henriette_Ilyes@rand.org __________________________________________________________________________ This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.