ACQNET: RE - Identifying street release dates (1 reply)

Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:07:44 -0600
From: Heather Cannon (Loyola U. Health Sciences) <hcannon_at_lumc.edu>
Subject: RE - Identifying street release dates

Do you have a local brick and mortar big name bookstore?  Barnes & Noble, 
Borders, Books-A-Million?  If so, see if there's someone there that would 
be willing to talk to you to let you know when they'll be putting the book 
on the shelves.  I used to work at a Books-A-Million and it was a Very Big 
Deal that we not release the book before we were supposed to.

I've had the experience of Amazon telling me that they would be shipping a 
book on a certain date, only to find later that that date had changed.  
OTOH, I'm pretty sure that the "real world" booksellers have the actual dates.

Just an idea. 

- Heather.



Heather Cannon
Serials & Electronic Resources Librarian
Loyola University Health Sciences Library
708-216-5302
hcannon_at_lumc.edu 


------------Original message:

Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:36:17 -0500
From: Roberta Schenewerk (Fort Worth PL) <rschenew_at_fortworthlibrary.org>
Subject: Identifying street release dates

We are finding it more difficult to identify accurate street release 
dates. Being from a public library we strive to get materials to 
our patrons on street date, but we seem to be spending more and more time
trying to verify this information.   My most recent example is James 
Patterson's_ Step on a Crack._ The packing slip received from the vendor 
indicated a street date of 2/12/07 and yet Amazon.com showed
a street date of 2/6/07.  With further checking, Barnes and Noble did 
not indicate a specific date, but showed to be shipping the book on 2/6/07.  
Ingram just showed a general February 2007 release date. 
When we called the vendor we got the book from to verify the release 
date they stood by the 2/12/07 date. We have found that even the publisher 
databases are unreliable. My concern is that we have signed agreements
with our vendors stating we will not put books out prior to release date 
and we strive to do so, but it gets frustrating checking multiple places 
and getting different information. Does anyone know of a definitive source
for street date or can provide some hints for simplifying the process?

Thank you.
ROBERTA SCHENEWERK
HEAD OF ACQUISITIONS
FORT WORTH PUBLIC LIBRARY
500 W. 3RD ST.
FORT WORTH, TX 76102
817-871-7718
rschenew_at_fortworthlibrary.org 




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