ACQNET v1n084 (June 9, 1991) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acq-v1n084 ACQNET, Vol 1, No. 84, June 9, 1991 =================================== (1) FROM: Marsha Clark SUBJECT: Advertising in books (11 lines) (2) FROM: Kathy O'Gorman SUBJECT: Annuals not received every year (8 lines) (3) FROM: Jeri Van Goethem SUBJECT: Survey of accounting functions (25 lines) (4) FROM: Sheila Mangum SUBJECT: Price increases (22 lines) (5) FROM: Sheila Mangum SUBJECT: Service charges (33 lines) (1) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Jun 91 08:40 EDT From: Marsha Clark Subject: Books with advertising In this week's approval shipment, NYU received _BOOKS WARS: WHAT IT TAKES TO BE EDUCATED IN AMERICA_ by James Atlas, published by Whittle Direct Books (Knoxville, Tenn.) The titles sounded great but the treatment was too popular for our collection. What startled us though, was the thirteen pages scattered through the book of advertisements for Federal Express. The hardcov- er, 90-page book is $11.95 list. I wonder how much F.E. paid for the advertis- ing? Have other libraries been receiving books with ads? (2) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1991 16:19 EST From: Kathy O'Gorman Subject: Annuals not received every year Does anyone currently have an arrangement with a vendor or vendors to receive an annual publication every other year instead of every year? If so, what success have you had? What problems have you encountered? Which vendor do you prefer? (3) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 05 Jun 91 17:05:21 EST From: Jeri Van Goethem Subject: Survey of accounting functions I am interested in getting information on the numbers and levels of staff who do accounting functions for acquisitions and payments. I am especially interested in libraries with materials budgets over 3 million and which use some type of automated acquisitions system. My questions: name of library___________; approx. budget ________________; type of auto. system_________________. 1. No. and level of staff who do accounting activities? 2. Give a brief summary of these activities. 3. Is the payment/accounting process for monographs and serials centralized? 4. Who (staff level; which dept.) is responsible for fund resolution; for final budget resolution? 5. Does the library or the university do the actual check writing? 6. What is the staff for automation support? To whom does this staff report? Please respond to: jvg@mail.lib.duke.edu Or: Jeri Van Goethem Acquisitions/Serials Dept. Perkins Library; Duke Univ.; Durham, NC 27706 (4) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jun 91 16:28:58 LCL From: "Sheila Mangum, Head, Acquisitions Dept., UNF Library" Subject: Unreasonable monograph price increases Earlier this fiscal year I ordered a Rowman & Littlefield title called _A Useful Inheritance: Evolutionary Aspects of the Theory of Knowledge_ by Nicholas Rescher. The price in R & L's fall 1990 catalog was $31.50. One of my vendors just supplied it, giving $43.50 as the list price, so I called the publisher to verify this, hoping that it was an error. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The publisher's customer service dept. seemed very surprised when I told them I would be returning the book because I considered the price increase to be outrageous. They couldn't provide any explanation of why the cost of this 138 page book of simple text should have risen by 38%, other than "prices do go up, you know." I plan to write a letter of protest to the publisher and urge the rest of you to do the same whenever you find unreasonable increases such as this. I'd also like to hear about them on ACQNET. After making a number of price increase queries this year I'm convinced that there are a number of publishers who don't feel the library community is all that concerned about monograph pricing. I'd like to change their minds. (5) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jun 91 18:29:54 LCL From: "Sheila Mangum, Head, Acquisitions Dept., UNF Library" Subject: Vendor service charges In grappling with severe budget cuts I find myself questioning price increases and pricing structures more than ever before. Just recently, in examining some price increase notifications from one of my major academic vendors, I've come up against some pricing practices that I'm uneasy with. A case in point: My estimate for a Jones & Bartlett title was $20.00. The vendor asked permission to send at $30.35. I checked a new J&B catalog which listed the title at $23.75. This was verified by a phone call to the publish- er, who also confirmed that the vendor would have been given a short discount of 20%. Adding a $6.60 service fee to a $23.75 title on which the vendor has been given a 20% discount seems out of line to me. A similar situation happened with a Mosby title. Neither of these publishers is on a certain listing provided by the vendor on which they will guarantee discounts. However, these publishers aren't in the same class as many of the associations & societies which don't provide any vendor discount, and on which I do expect to be invoiced for an amount which includes a "reasonable" service charge. I might add that the vendor had recently changed its service fee structure without notifying me, and their attempts to explain it couldn't justify why they had tried to charge what they did---but it wasn't an error. The more they tried to explain, then more obscure the whole situation became. Since I like to have some idea of how much I'm going to pay for a title, "creative" service fees leave me cold. In discussing service fees with this vendor's field representative as well as several other reps with whom we do business, I got the impression that many of you aren't concerned about the fees and don't monitor them at all. Is this true? I'd be interested in knowing what constitutes a "reasonable" service charge to the rest of you. ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE *****