ACQNET v1n030 (February 21, 1991) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/serials/stacks/acqnet/acq-v1n030 ACQNET, Vol 1, No. 30, February 21, 1991 ======================================== (1) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: Who's new in ACQNET today (14 lines) (2) FROM: Marcia Tuttle SUBJECT: Les Livres Etrangers (13 lines) (3) FROM: Christian Boissonnas SUBJECT: Les Livres Etrangers, Russian publishing (36 lines) (4) FROM: Dora Chen SUBJECT: OP searching in Western Europe (5 lines) (5) FROM: Dora Chen SUBJECT: Ordering from vendor slips (15 lines) (6) FROM: Anna Bell Leiserson SUBJECT: Ordering from vendor slips (21 lines) (7) FROM: Doug Duchin SUBJECT: Ordering from vendor slips (46 lines) (1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: February 21, 1991 From: Christian Subject: Who's new on ACQNET today Frances Lynch James T. Deffenbaugh Assist. Dir. for Tech. Svces AUL for Coll. Devel. and Preservation and Collect. Devel. College of William and Mary Vanderbilt Medical Center Library E-mail: JTDEFF@WMVM1.BITNET E-mail: LYNCHFH0.VUCTRVAX.BITNET Frances is our 100th registered member. So now we span two countries, are about 1/8th the size of the American Association of Law Libraries (some of you know how I get off on numbers), and are still picking up new members, almost daily. (2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Feb 91 16:25 EST From: "Marcia Tuttle" Subject: LES LIVRES ETRANGERES We have unconfirmed information that our primary source for Soviet materials, Les Livres Etrangeres in Paris, is bankrupt and has gone out of business. We know no details of the situation. Rumor has it that other suppliers of Soviet materials are also in a shaky situation. The reason, presumably, is the collapse of the Soviet economy. We understand that Les Livres Etrangers did not place any 1991 renewal orders, at least for us. We are waiting to hear from others who we hope will know something concrete, but meanwhile, it seems that ACQNET subscribers should at least know what we are hearing and at best can shed some light on it. (3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Feb 91 11:26:56 EST From: Christian Boissonnas Subject: Les Livres Etrangers This morning I have talked to Georges Delorme, owner of Les Livres Etrangers. The company is not bankrupt, but is going out of business, effective next Monday, assuming that it receives the legal authorization to do so (required in France -- I can tell you why some other time if you want to know). The reason Delorme gave me is that the centralized book procurement system in the Soviet Union has collapsed. Since he depends on that system for 99% of his business, he sees no way he can satisfactorily meet customer expectations, so he's closing shop. He currently is negotiating with Collets in London for them to take over his outstanding orders, including subscriptions. He does not yet know whether they will accept. When he does, he will write a general letter to all customers to tell them what's going on. He is, of course, very unhappy. He is very pessimistic about the long-term situation in Russia. He hopes that, within two or three years, things will have straightened out enough to that he can get back in business. He is not optimistic about that happening. He did express his concern for his customers and says he hasn't told them yet simply because there hasn't been enough time since he made the decision and he is prohibited by the Court from doing so until next Monday. I suggest everybody hang loose for a few days until we receive his official notification. It may tell us what he has done or present some options for us. What we need in addition is some reliable information about what is happening in publishing and book distribution in Russia. Presumably books that we want are still being published, so how do we get them. I really mean "reliable" information, not guesses. Among us there ought to be someone who knows someone who can tell us what's going on. Would all of you who know such people please ask them to clue you in and report here for the rest of us? (4) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Feb 91 18:34 EST From: Dora Chen Subject: OP Searching in France OP Searching in Western Europe: Yes, Touzot also keeps OP orders on file. (5) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Feb 91 18:34 EST From: Dora Chen Subject: Ordering from vendor slips Among the four options which Christian listed, my choice would be either for no. 1 or no. 2. No. 1. Receiving duplicate slips causes more work for both bibliographers and acquisition staff. If you do not need them tell vendors not to send them. No. 2. If you need to get duplicate slips for certain reason and you never order from the vendor who sends slips then you should pay for the slips. I am not sure if vendors can make money from selling slips without getting orders. If they can make money, maybe you cannot afford to pay the price. (6) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Feb 91 11:23 CDT From: Anna Belle Leiserson Subject: Ordering from vendor slips What about the cost to vendors? As far as I know, this is an unexplored aspect of the too-many-slips dilemma. I have always blithely assumed that the cost was low for the larger companies (e.g. BNA), and thus have left my conscience alone when receiving slips from unrequited vendors. I agree with those who point out that slips are a marketing tool -- and would take this point a step further: their appearance is akin to that of junk mail. Does anyone know what costs are involved for vendors? Say on a per institution per year basis? Or what percentage of firm orders based on slips is needed to produce a profit? Our library is in the process of analyzing the costs v. benefits of sorting through junk mail and vendor slips. My hypothesis is that it costs us a great deal in staff time to sift through the mountains of new-title-mail we receive -- and that there are chunks that can be eliminated or at least streamlined. If anything of possible value surfaces (the study finishes at the end of this month), I will pass it along. (7) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Feb 91 09:06:34 EST From: Douglas Duchin Subject: Ordering from vendor slips I had hoped to see some response from former vendors. My response is based on several years in vending, with several vendors, and does not reflect the interests, practice or policy of any single vendor. Slip services are often spin-offs from book approval plans, and are usually designed to enhance a book plan. Some or all of the vendors may also see the service as a "value added" service to libraries, enhancing the library-vendor relationship, contributing to the bibliographic database and reducing the cost of acquisitions. None/some/all vendors may also hope that the production of a slip will result in a sale. In that sense, it is a form of advertising. If you have overlapping slip services with several vendors, some of these vendors are going to be squeezed out in the actual purchase process. Most selection of vendor seems to boil down to 1) speed of announcement, 2) speed of fulfillment and rate of fulfillment, and 3) discount/postage/service fees. I personally feel that as long as the vendor knows what his/her chance is of getting the order, you are free to select your purchase source. There is a financial outlay on the part of the vendor, and if you request a program that produces 10,000 slips and you order no books (yes, this happens) then perhaps you and the vendor should reconsider your program - to put it delicately. While the slip plan may be a spin-off from an approval plan or some other gathering plan, it can also take up to 40-50 person-hours to set up the profile (including on-site visits, air fare, hotels, salesman's salaries and in-house programming which, again, involves salaries and overhead), a cost for blank forms, a cost for printing on the forms, a cost for mailing the forms, etc. None of this is free, and it can cut into the vendor's operating budget. None/some/all vendors are, most likely, hoping to get the order by offering you the best overall package. If you do not intend to purchase from the vendor at all, perhaps you should not accept the slip service. If you want to continue to get slips from a number of vendors, you should consider narrowing your profile by press, or by subject (tricky), or by country of origin (trickier). The more complicated the profile, the more likely you are to have overlaps and gaps. If you worry that something will "fall through the cracks" then you should consider supplementing your data source with a non-vendor source, such as the LC Alert service, rather than multiply vendors. Again, this is a very personal reaction, based on several years of observa- tions. If anyone would like to talk with me about slip and book plans, I'm at DDUBB@CUNYVM.BITNET ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE *****