-------- Original Message --------
Subject: ACQNET: RE - ISBNs in Electronic Orders (next 5 replies)
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 18:56:46 -0500
From: Eleanor Cook <cookei_at_appstate.edu>
Reply-To: cookei_at_appstate.edu
To: acqnet-l_at_listproc.appstate.edu
(1)--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 17:59:21 -0500
From: Debra Thomson (Rhode Island College Library) <DThomson_at_ric.edu>
Subject: RE - ISBNs in Electronic Orders
Hi,
I'm glad to see a book vendor addressing this problem. Our consortium
uses Innovative, and this has been an ongoing issue among the
consortium's Acquisitions group members.
To solve the problem, I have the acquisitions staff insert a vendor note
into the order record. The vendor note consists of the letters "ISBN"
followed by the correct ISBN for the volume being orderd. It was
someone
at YBP who requested that we enter the vendor note in this manner,
rather than saying something like "volume 2", so that the vendor could
easily identify those orders for which they should not use the default
(first listed) ISBN from the bibliographic record.
I believe that the members of my consortium have made "enhancement
requests" to Innovative that they make it simpler process to indicate an
alternate ISBN when ordering, without having to resequence the ISBN's,
but nothing has been done by Innovative to address this problem, so far
as I know.
Until the problem is solved, we will continue to use the vendor note
field of the order record to indicate alternative ISBN's.
Good luck with your quest.
Debra Thomson
Supervisor, Order Department
Rhode Island College Library
600 Mt. Pleasant Ave.
Providence, RI 02908
Phone 401-456-9651 * Fax 401-456-9646 * email dthomson_at_ric.edu
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Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 11:52:53 -0500
From: Marsha J. Hamilton (Ohio State U.) <hamilton.8_at_osu.edu>
Subject: RE - ISBNs in Electronic Orders
Re: ILS default of first ISBN on electronic orders:
This is a problem. We do not re-sequence ISBNs in the bibliographic
record because of the inherent problems. If we order a volume that
does not correspond to the first-listed ISBN, we do not place the order
electronically.
For example, to order v. 2 of a set, we order by phone, online via a
vendor's database, or by paper purchase order through the mail. For
paper p.o., since the first ISBN prints, we add a vendor note specifying
the correct ISBN and cross out the pre-printed "first" ISBN.
It's cumbersome whichever work-around is used. The ideal is for ILS
vendors to allow the user to select the ISBN to be used for an
order. Unfortunately, getting such a complicated enhancement from ILS
vendors is not as simple as forwarding a request.
Marsha J. Hamilton
Associate Professor
Head, Monographs Department
Room 040 Main Library
The Ohio State University
1858 Neil Avenue Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1286 USA
(614) 292-6314 - ph.
(614) 292-2015 - fax
hamilton.8_at_osu.edu
(3)---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 10:22:25 -0500
From: Lisa H. Corlee (Univ. of Missouri-Columbia) <CorleeL_at_missouri.edu>
Subject: RE - ISBNs in Electronic Orders
Dear fellow listservers,
We also find this troublesome. Since the monograph acquisitions
staff does copy cataloging too, we have editing permissions, so that is
not a problem. Resequenceing ISBNs though is a pain, and the staff does
not always remember to do this. It is especially problematic with
multi-volume items; we can live with getting a paperback vs. hardback.
It does not take too long to move numbers, as we can cut and paste or
just insert a new field and rekey the number, whichever works best for
each person, but it is something else to remember and does indeed break
the workflow. As we do more and more BISAC ordering, this issue will
become more of a real problem than it is now. If anyone has better ways
to deal with this...let us know.
Lisa Corlee
Lisa Corlee
Assistant Head, Acquisitions Department
University of Missouri - Columbia
52 Ellis Library
1020 Lowry Street
Columbia, MO 65201-5149
phone: 573-882-1770
fax: 573-884-5243
corleel_at_missouri.edu
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Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 12:18:46 -0500
From: Joyce G. McDonough (Columbia Univ.) <jm86_at_columbia.edu>
Subject: RE - ISBNs in electronic orders
That was a nice peek into the Vendor's perspective but now let's look
at the Library's perspective on this question.
The Library has contracted with a vendor to provide services. As a
part of the set-up and negotiation, the Library sets up a profile
with the vendor that includes the usual invoicing, shipping and return
policies. In addition the Library sets up a set of preferences for
material supplied, let's say cloth, trade, paper, microform. The
Library is assured that this is not a problem.
The Library agrees to provide bibliographic information about the item
desired. Since it's convenient to do so and seems useful to the Vendor,
the Library generates the purchase order from the bibliographic record
used in the local database, leaving any identifying numbers associated
with the title on the record. It is on the assumption that this will
help the vendor identify the desired title, not the desired binding,
that this information is provided.
Whatever the Vendor's local software and fulfillment practices, the
Library expects the Vendor's practices to take into account the set of
preferences that the Library established at the outset of the
relationship. From the scenario outlined in the original note it sounds
as though the Vendor's software is missing a critical checkpoint. I
would assume that it is possible for the Vendor's software to be set up
so that titles with multiple ISBNs for bindings and volumes are flagged
for human review as they come into the system. In fact, I would
suggest
this as an excellent enhancement to the Vendor's software.
In response to your questions:
1. I've been aware of this problem since the late 1980's. I have
received five copies of a volume 2. I have been told that the cloth
title is out of print, but not that a different binding is readily
available. I consider both to be examples of poor vendor performance.
2. It is not only onerous but completely unacceptable for a vendor to
request that the Library staff re-sequence ISBNs on a record. (Note the
suggested change to the vendor's software above.) Of course if a vendor
finds the presence of an ISBN to be confusing, I suppose the Library
could set up the purchase order so that ISBNs are not included at all.
3. I would not even consider asking an ILS vendor to provide an
automatic re-sequencing feature. The problem lies with the processing
at the Vendor's end.
Joyce G. McDonough telephone: 212-854-4764
Director, Technical Support & Acquisitions
Columbia University Libraries fax: 212-854-0089
535 West 114th St email: jm86_at_columbia.edu
NY, NY 10027
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Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 16:45:07 -0500
From: Donna Packer (Western WA Univ.) <Donna.Packer_at_wwu.edu>
Subject: RE - ISBNs in electronic orders
We find this a terrific nuisance here. We download a lot of records
from Global Books in Print, and the staff who place orders complain
about it a great deal. When enhancement requests were recently
submitted to the Innovative Users Group, I was delighted to see at
least two requests addressing this problem. I was dismayed to find
that when the edited versions were presented for voting, this issue was
no longer on the list.
Is there a possibility that the book vendors could also mention the
difficulty to the companies which provide the most commonly used
integrated library systems? As individual libraries, we just get asked
to submit such questions as "enhancement requests" and, as you can see,
this issue didn't make the voting cut this year for Innovative. In
general, I find that the integrated systems vendors don't seem to think
in terms of our staff productivity when they design their systems. We
happen to think that productivity is tremendously important.
- Donna
Donna Packer
Head of Acquisitions/Serials Services
Collection Development Coordinator
Western Washington University Libraries
516 High Street
Bellingham, WA 98225-9103
Telephone: 360.650.3335
Fax: 360.650.3954
Email: donna.packer_at_wwu.edu
Received on Sun Nov 24 2002 - 15:40:22 EST