Re: vendor question Pam Scott 09 Feb 2012 20:37 UTC
Thanks so much to everyone for your very helpful responses. I've experienced a few vendor switches in my career and the change was never done willingly. It's always good to have advice/guidance on how to make such a transition less traumatic - just in case. Regards, Pa, On 2/1/12, DAVIS, ROGER <rdavis@kent.edu> wrote: > All I can attest to is that our switch to Swets was smoother than others. We > provided them with our shelf list from our online system along with the > expiry date and it plugged in with a minimum of fuss. There was some overlap > in subscriptions for a few issues but we encounter that even with the same > vendor sometimes during renewal, which I blame mostly on the publishers not > the vendor. The old vendor subscriptions were simply allowed to expire as > Swets renewed the titles. > > I don't know if this is a problem anymore, but sometimes the smaller vendors > couldn't get the titles we wanted, especially the international titles. I'm > impressed with the Swets catalog in that if we want it and they don't have > it, they will get it. There are always problems with any vendor. It may be > claims, renewals, electronic access but I've found that the most crucial > aspect is the account representative for you library. I've encountered some > that only want to attend to the large accounts and let the smaller library > accounts take the back burner. We have a comparatively tiny collection but > are a part of a larger multi-campus university. Our account however is > handled as if it is an individual unit. > I know that sometimes large vendors don't want to handle small accounts but > that has not been my experience with Swets. If you are not comfortable in > your interviews with your account representative for prospective vendors, > then by all means, don't sign up with them. > > My biggest headache is claims but I don't know of any serial librarian who > doesn't have these headaches no matter what vendor they have. > > Roger > > -----Original Message----- > From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum > [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Pam Scott > Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 5:33 PM > To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU > Subject: Re: [SERIALST] vendor question > > Hi Roger, > > Regarding your switch to Swets - what made the vendor switch smooth? > Do you think it's that the publishers are better prepared to handle > such changes or do you think it has more to do with the subscription > vendors? We switched many years ago - just when the e-access was > starting to grow - and at that time it was extremely painful. I think > our library's management of e-journals (using Serials Solutions, etc) > and by less reliance on access directly through our subscription > vendor might make a switch easier now. I would appreciate any > feedback that you could give. We are considering a switch from Swets > to Ebsco. Although we dread the process, the service we're receiving > from Swets has been poor. > > Regards, > > Pam Scott > Librarian > Tripler Army Medical Library > > > On 1/23/12, DAVIS, ROGER <rdavis@kent.edu> wrote: >> I've had the "privilege" of changing serial vendors three times in the >> last >> 15 years. There are good points and bad for each vendor and it depends >> somewhat on the size of your collection if one will be better for you than >> another. I will say that our last switch to SWETS was the smoothest I've >> seen. It was seamless and we had very few problems with publishers. >> >> Roger >> >> From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum >> [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Coakley, Lynn >> Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 2:47 PM >> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU >> Subject: [SERIALST] vendor question >> >> hi all: >> >> A colleague at a neighboring college asked me for information about >> periodicals vendors besides Ebsco of which they are a customer. >> Apparently >> an audit turned up the fact that there are other vendors that are cheaper. >> Personally, I think the agony of getting titles transferred from one >> vendor >> to another is not worth the lesser cost, but that's my opinion. >> >> I told her I would ask this list for ideas of a different periodicals >> vendor >> that you love (or that you hate), I'd love to have that info. >> >> Thanks >> >> Lynn >> >> -- >> Lynn Coakley >> Coordinator of Technical Services >> Library >> Springfield Technical Community College >> One Armory Sq. >> Springfield, MA 01102 >> 413.755.4565 >> fax 413.755.6315 >> >> > > > -- > Pam Scott, MLISc > Technical Information Specialist > Tripler Medical Library > 1 Jarrett White Road > Tripler Army Medical Center, HI 96859-5000 > Ph: 808.433.6391 > Fx. 808.433.4892 > -- Pam Scott, MLISc Technical Information Specialist Tripler Medical Library 1 Jarrett White Road Tripler Army Medical Center, HI 96859-5000 Ph: 808.433.6391 Fx. 808.433.4892