ACQNET v1n037 (February 27, 1991) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acq-v1n037 ACQNET, Vol 1, No. 37, February 27, 1991 ======================================== (1) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: Slavic orders and subscriptions (14 lines) (2) FROM: Brad Schaffner SUBJECT: Slavic orders and subscriptions (28 lines) (3) FROM: David James SUBJECT: Slavic orders and subscriptions (41 lines) (4) FROM: Scott Wicks SUBJECT: Slavic orders and subscriptions (51 lines) (5) FROM: Julie Nilson SUBJECT: Lebanese book buying (21 lines) (1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: February 27, 1991 From: Christian Subject: Slavic orders and subscriptions Lest anyone gets confused, I'm wearing my editorial hat here. Below are three contributions dealing with Slavic procurement. Although the information is new and helps us understand what may be going on, I caution you to read it carefully. There are significant contradictions among the postings as to facts, or presumed facts. I have no way of reliably confirming what the contributors tell us today. So I offer it as is, because it is generally information that we need to have, with the above-mentioned caution. (2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 09:07:50 CST From: Brad Schaffner Subject: Slavic orders and subscriptions Now that LLE is out of business, there seems to be a lot of confusion in regards to Soviet subscriptions. I have been in contact with several other Soviet bibliographers and this is a summary of some of the points discussed. As I understand it, Delorme closed shop, he did not go bankrupt. He did this because Mezh. Knig. is having trouble supplying materials. (Import Publica- tions of Chicago is also out of business.) Many Soviet publishers are unhappy with Mezh. Knig. and are looking to deal directly with vendors in the West in an attempt to increase their hard currency profits. In general, the Soviet distribution system is falling apart. I keep in contact with several Soviet libraries and they are also having trouble obtaining publications. It appears that Mezh. Knig. passed LLE's subscription lists to a number of vendors without consulting Delorme. They want payment soon because the subscriptions for 1991 have already been submited. Collets is not the only option. I have had very good luck with Kamkin over the past few years. Kubon and Sagner of Munich has received the first six issues of Novye Knigi for 1991. (No one else seems to be getting NK). They believe that they can fill many of the outstanding monograph orders. Keep in mind that if it is a distribution problem no vendor will be able to supply materials. Unfortunately, I believe that the problem will get worse before the situation improves. (3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 10:44:07 EST From: David James Subject: Slavic orders and subscriptions Steve Rouzer, Assistant Head of Acquisitions here, contacted Kamkin. I include the results of his inquiries below. Steve also contacted Russian friends at Dumbarton Oaks, who expressed surprise at rumors of total chaos in Soviet publishing, but had no specific knowledge of the situation. February 25, 1991 David: I just spoke with Ms. Kira Caiafa, who manages Victor Kamkin. Her assessment of the situation in the USSR is as follows: Mezhdunarodnyi Knigi in Moscow, the big overseas distributor, is now a private corporation. They are doing some publishing on their own, no longer just distributing for other Soviet publishers. They are, she assures me, "sounder than ever," and one can now buy stock in the company! Books ordered from Novyi Knigi are being shipped as always, and Kamkin has received since January 30 tons (that is what she said) of Soviet publications. Technical publications from the republics and other outlying areas are diffi- cult to get, but they have always been difficult to get as the tirages are small. The tirages for books ordered from Novyi Knigi are based on orders received in advance from Western European and US markets. Mrs. Caiafa said that Mezhdunarodnyi Knigi has sent her all US subscriptions that Livres Etrangers was handling, as well as all advance orders for mono- graphs placed using Novyi Knigi. Victor Kamkin will be contacting serials customers to confirm renewals. All payments sent through Paris to Moscow for current subscriptions will be honored. End of Message At Hopkins we have a small number of subscriptions with Livres Etrangers. We have not however heard from them nor from Colletts. I share Christian's concern that Colletts is saying that LE is bankrupt. We have dealt with Colletts recently, but not for Russian materials. Our prefered dealer for Russian materials is Kubon and Sagner. (4) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 16:00:15 EST From: Scott Wicks Subject: Kamkin and the Soviet Conspiracy, or Surrender by March 1 I just got off the phone with Natalie Zabasky from Kamkin. I am very surprised at the lack of information I received. I expected her to, well, give me the scoop on the publishing situation within the Soviet Union. Every tidbit of information I gathered was pried out of her as if an impacted wisdom tooth. It is also possible that I was the 101st caller today and that she was growing weary of having to explain it all one! more! time! At any rate, this is what I forced her to tell me: Q: Can you tell me what has happened to Les Livres Etrangers? A: They're bankrupt. All outstanding orders (monographs, serials, ...) should be considered cancelled. At this point I expected her to tell me that the list of subscriptions placed with MK (Soviet distributor) by LLE had been passed on to Kamkin by MK. She did not offer this information. After a pause and some "gee"s and "hmmm"s on my part, I pressed on and got her to tell me that LLE was forced into bankrupt- cy as a result of the privitization of MK. MK apparently wanted all of their money up front before they would supply anything to LLE. As LLE was unable to come up with the funds, they were forced to file for bankruptcy. Q: What about serial subscriptions? A: Haven't you received our letter? You should have it by now. MK contacted us giving us about a week to put all of the renewal information together to beat the March 1st deadline. We HAVE to let MK know by then in order to begin the subscriptions with January. Q: What about subscriptions for which we have already paid? A: You mean through France? That money is lost. You'll never get anything through the bankruptcy courts. You'll have to stand in a loooong line. What I put together from our conversation concerning the disarray of the Soviet publishing industry is that it is no longer run by the government. MK has been privatized (no longer subsidized by the government) and that we (or our vendors) may be forced to prepay for any future publications. I suppose sudden privatization could lead to chaos. What really ticks me off is that we are told we have a deadline (3/1/91) which is so close at hand that we haven't the time to think this process out in full. Do we want to use Kamkin? At least one institution does not. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that some list of outstanding subscriptions was compiled for us. Using this list we could always place new orders with the vendor of choice (if we can do so by 3/1/91.) I wonder why MK decided to contact Kamkin for all of the business and not Collets or Kubon und Sagner. Hmmm, gee! (5) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 11:32 EST From: Julie Nilson Subject: Sulaiman's Bookshop Indiana University has continued to purchase materials from Sulaiman's Bookshop through their temporary U.S. address for orders and claims: Sulaiman's Bookshop P.O. Box 1976 Dearborn, Michigan 48121 Invoices, we pay at the following address: Sulaiman's Bookshop Algiers St. -- Zarif --Malla Baba Bldg. P.O. Box: 11-8258 Beirut, Lebanon We received our latest shipment from them on January 22, 1991. ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE *****