ACQNET v5n024 (August 2, 1995) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/serials/stacks/acqnet/acqnet-v5n024 ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 5, No. 24, August 2, 1995 ======================================== (1) FROM: Barbara Hall SUBJECT: Where to Send Unneeded Materials (18 lines) (2) FROM: Donna Alsbury/Win Gelenter SUBJECT: ALA Meeting Report: Looking Beyond Service Charge (59 lines) (3) FROM: Mark Lester SUBJECT: RoweCom's Subscribe96 Software (40 lines) (4) FROM: John Harrison SUBJECT: Withdrawals (22 lines) (5) FROM: Carmen Socknat SUBJECT: Vendor for South Korean Books (14 lines) (6) FROM: Steve Rouzer SUBJECT: Japanese Approval Plans (15 lines) (1)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 17:41:10 -0400 From: Barbara Hall (Univ. of S. California) Subject: Where Can We Send Discarded Books or Gifts Not Needed? Does anyone have any addresses of organizations collecting and sending books to colleges and libraries in third world countries, or other organizations that might be able to use unwanted library materials? We have a number of boxes of business and management books and serials from the 1970's and 1980's -- is there any alternative to sending these materials to the landfill? Barbara Hall Head, Acquisitions Department University of Southern California Library Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182 Telephone: (213) 740-7355 FAX (213)749-1221 (2)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 13:11:14 -0400 From: Donna Alsbury (Florida Center for Automation) Subject: ALA Meeting Report : Looking Beyond Service Charge The Acquisitions Committee of the Serials Section of ALCTS sponsored the program LOOKING BEYOND SERVICE CHARGE: PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SERIALS VENDORS. Speakers were October Ivins, Head, Acquisitions and Serials Services, Louisiana State University; Michele Crump, Associate Chair, Acquisitions Section, Resource Services Department, University of Florida; and Gary J. Brown, Director of Library Services, Latin America, Blackwells. A show of hands disclosed that most of the audience had not done a formal vendor evaluation. October Ivins, moderator, and one of the principle editors of the soon to be published _Guide to Performance Evaluation of Serials Vendors_, acknowledged that such an evaluation can be tedious, and it is difficult to do a comprehensive study. But segments of a study can be done, and they should be ongoing and part of routine work. The _Guide_ can help pinpoint areas for evaluation and suggests methodology for the evaluation. Michele Crump and Gary Brown, though speaking from the different perspectives of the library and the serials vendor, agreed that while one is evaluating a vendor, it is likely that the library's performance and the publisher's performance will also be evaluated. The main thing is, what are the problems and how are the problems resolved. The principle reason for evaluating a vendor is to have information and facts so that you may communicate with your vendor effectively. The formal presentation was followed by the presentation and audience discussion of various "scenarios"; practical cases we might be involved in at some point in our careers. For example, what about the renewal notices you keep receiving for a title when you know you have renewed the title and paid for it too. Does this signify poor vendor performance? And how do you respond to a message on a listserve asking if Vendor X is any good? How do you respond to a similar inquiry over the telephone? What do you do when you discover that Library A's service charge from Vendor U is 4% and your service charge from Vendor U, or Vendor V, is 6.5%? The Committee hoped that the presentation would be interesting and stimulating, and encourage libraries to evaluate the performance of their serial vendors. The program was co-sponsored by the ALCTS Publisher/Vendor Library Relations Committee and the ALCTS Acquisitions Section. Program co-chairs: Donna Alsbury, Florida Center for Library Automation: David James, Johns Hopkins University; Chair: Marifran Bustion, George Washington University. Reported by: Win Gelenter INTERNET: wgelente@nalusda.gov Supervisor, Serials Unit PHONE: (301) 504-6573 Acquisitions & Serials Branch FAX: (301) 504-5243 USDA, ARS, National Agricultural Library Beltsville, MD 20705 (3)-------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 13:11:11 -0400 From: Mark Lester (San Diego State U.) Subject: RoweCom's Subscribe96 software The SDSU Library director and I met recently with Richard Rowe who presented his new software package, Subscribe96. Some of you may have seen it at demonstrated at ALA; for those who aren't familiar with it, it enables subscription orders, payments, claims and responses to be transmitted electronically between participating libraries and publishers, bypassing traditional subscription agents. Although we can see some potential pitfalls with the product, the basic idea behind this package interests us. Our principal concern is with the payment process. Payments for subscriptions are electronically debited from the library's bank and credited to the publisher at the time the order is placed. There are no invoices to be produced or checks to be cut. This might not present too many problems for private institutions, but I am unsure of the feasibility of electronic debits for those of us who work in a state operated environment, where our bank is the state treasury. As a preliminary step, we are beginning to explore whether we can obtain authorization to do this from campus administrators. If they approve the concept we will proceed with our explorations through the state hierarchy. My questions for ACQNET subscribers are: Have you had any experience with the electronic transfer of funds to pay for materials? If so, do you control the process or does control reside with some other agency? Did you encounter resistance when you first sought to initiate such a procedure? Were questions regarding audit trail raised? Any other comments you wish to offer on this subject will be appreciated. Thanks. Mark R. Lester Head, Acquisitions Unit San Diego State University Library Voice: (619) 594-4122 5500 Campanile Drive Fax: (619) 594-4093 San Diego, CA 92182-8050 (4)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 17:42:07 -0400 From: John Harrison (N. Arizona U.) Subject: Withdrawals End o' the year stuff... Our library reports to our university comptroller the number of titles withdrawn from the collection in the course of the fiscal year. A former administrator assigned a value (at the request of said comptroller) to these materials. For convenience sake I took this per-volume value and gave the comptroller his statistic. I don't, however, know how this per-volume (monograph, bound periodical, etc.) value was created. Does anyone do something similar and have some authoritative source for assigning value to withdrawn material? John Harrison Acquisitions Librarian, Cline Library Northern Arizona University 520/523-6856 john.harrison@nau.edu (5)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 10:14:13 -0400 From: Carmen Socknat (Victoria U.) Subject: Vendor for South Korean books Could anybody recommend a vendor for South Korean materials, preferably someone operating from the US or Canada? Thank you very much. Carmen Konigsreuther Socknat Acquisitions Librarian Victoria University Toronto, Ontario, Canada (6)---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 15:41:04 -0400 From: Steven Rouzer Subject: Japanese approval plans Does anyone out there have any experience with Japanese approval plans? We have a new faculty member who wants us to begin collecting Japanese language materials in political science, international affairs, and economics. The reference/bibliographer in charge of those subjects wants a subject-based approval plan. We have experience (good and bad) with Maruzen. Kinokuniya has also been suggested. Please reply directly to me at . Thanks. ****** END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 5, No. 24 ****** END OF FILE ******