ACQNET v6n012 (April 26, 1996) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acqnet-v6n012 ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 6, No. 12, April 26, 1996 ======================================== (1) FROM: Martin Cohen SUBJECT: Blackwell NTO for firm and form orders (36 lines) (2) FROM: Kristina Starkus SUBJECT: Downsizing in Acquisitions Depts. (19 lines) (3) FROM: Penny Swanson SUBJECT: Book Prices (16 lines) (4) FROM: Maria Cap SUBJECT: RE: Egyptian Book Vendor (22 lines) (5) FROM: Nancy Gibbs SUBJECT: Publisher's scam??? (46 lines) (6) FROM: Christine Fagan SUBJECT: Fireside Theatre / New Plays (16 lines) (7) FROM: Marcie Kingsley SUBJECT: Assessing Approval Plans Via Circulation Statistics (31 lines) (1)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 14:06:30 EST5EDT From: Martin Cohen (McGill Univ.) Subject: Blackwell NTO for firm and form orders McGill is currently investigating the use of Blackwell's NTO for electronic ordering - initially without the adjunct of an approval plan. Is there anyone else doing the same, and are there any particular characteristics or pitfalls? Some of the queries we have are: What is the source of current awareness of new publications - in particular, are you still receiving announcement forms from both BNA and BHB? Where is the input of new orders initiated - by bibliographers or by the Acquisitions Dept.? If by bibliographers, how is the check for duplication handled, and who commits the funds? Do you still enjoy the same discounts as you do with ordinary form-plan orders? What are the time lags between the entry of orders and their subsequent appearance with "ordered" status? Have you found a way to maintain an on-line on-order file accessible to readers as well as staff? These are just a few of the questions. We'd appreciate hearing about your experiences - please send messages directly to me. Martin Cohen Modern Languages Bibliographer McLennan Library McGill University cohen@lib1.lan.mcgill.ca (2)---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 16:53:10 -0500 (CDT) From: Kristina Starkus (Marquette Univ.) Subject: Downsizing in Acquisitions Depts. Like many of you, I am facing possible downsizing in my department . Even though we are all very busy these days, I would like to use this forum to gather ideas for how some of you have dealt with staff reductions and reorganizations. What have been your successful strategies for dealing with staffing reductions and reorganization of responsibilities? Have some responsibilities been shifted to other units? Let's have a discussion of some practical solutions to this situation we are all facing or will face. Send replies to the list please. Thank you. Kristina Starkus, Head Acquisitions Dept. Marquette University (3)---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 15:43:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Penny Swanson (Douglas College) Subject: Book Prices Hello, Has anyone seen any book price projections for 1996, or analysis of prices to 1995? We need something to justify (or not) asking for an increase in our budget. Thanks, Penny Penny Swanson Technical Services Librarian Douglas College Library, New Westminster, B.C. Canada Internet: swansonp@douglas.bc.ca Voice: (604) 527-5259 (4)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 09:18:42 -0700 From: Maria Cap (LA County Law Library) Subject: RE: Egyptian Book Vendor For the few and occasional times that we order books from Egypt, we have had good service from: George's Bookshop P.O. Box 220, Code No. 11511 Cairo, Egypt Tel. 3551827 - 2590104 They handle standing orders, books, and I believe subscriptions. We currently have 2 subscriptions through them. And they bill in U.S. dollars. ============================================================== Maria Cap Los Angeles County Law Library Acquisitions Librarian 301 West First St. maria@lalaw.lib.ca.us Los Angeles, CA 90012 Ph. (213) 629-3531 x330 Fax (213) 680-1758 ============================================================== (5)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 17:21:10 -0400 From: Nancy Gibbs (N.C. State Univ.) Subject: Publisher's scam??? The North Carolina State University Libraries unknowingly has purchased a title from a publisher reselling materials at exorbitant prices and I feel obligated to apprise the Acquisition community of this scam. Thanks, Nancy Gibbs and Kathy Brown The North Carolina State University Libraries received a publisher's blurb from a branch librarian asking us to purchase the title: Textile Industry Directory: USA, Canada, and Mexico. The blurb indicated the cost of the title as $295.00 and needed to be prepaid. The address for ordering was Rector Press of Leverett, MA. (1-800-247-3473). We duly ordered the title. Upon receipt of the item we saw the cover title was: Textile Red Book. We have a standing order for that title from the publisher Billian of Atlanta and had received the 1996 edition. We noticed that pages 1-2 were razored from the front of the Rector book; other pages also were razored from the middle and the back of the Rector Press title. When compared with the real Textile Red Book we found that the pages which were razored out or covered over with Rector Press labels showed the real title of the book, the publisher, and the cost: $114.00. We asked Rector Press if we could return the ordered title since we already owned this title under its cataloged entry. The answer was a brusque no, all sales are final, and the phone conversation disconnected. After seeing pages had been removed again we called Rector Press to report the book as defective; we were told we could not return the title for a return of our money and Rector Press hung up on the library staff member making the phone call. We have called Billian Press to apprise them that another publisher is reselling their materials for 100%+ of the real cost. We have also informed the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office and the ALA ALCTS Committee on Publisher/Vendor/Library Relations. Nancy J. Gibbs Acquisitions Department North Carolina State University Libraries Box 7111 Raleigh, NC 27695-7111 Phone: 919-515-7021 Email: nancy_gibbs@ncsu.edu Fax: 919-515-7292 (6)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 09:07:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Christine S. Fagan Subject: Fireside Theatre / New Plays I am looking for information about the Fireside Theatre Book Club. One of my faculty members would like the library to join this club in order to receive their latest monthly shipments of plays. I have avoided book clubs as a method of acquisitions, but apparently they were popular before I arrived here. I have written to Fireside Theatre for information, but was unable to locate a telephone number for their organization. Please let me know if you have had any experience with this group, or if you have a suggestion for a better way to obtain new plays on a regular basis. Thank you. Christine (7)---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 09:55:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Marcie Kingsley (Western MI Univ.) Subject: Assessing Approval Plans Via Circulation Statistics I'd like to know whether any librarians are obtaining useful statistics from their library systems that help them assess their approval plans; what I'm envisioning particularly are circulation statistics broken down by the method of acquiring the books (firm-order, approval plan, perhaps gift). I've been compiling some interesting statistics, essentially manually. There seems no hope of getting programmers to write SAS reports to generate this kind of information from our current NOTIS system, but I am looking forward to this kind of reporting in some future system. (A demo of Sirsi's Unicorn system made it appear that almost any kind of report is possible.) So I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has looked at approval-plan-book circulation vs. firm-order circulation whether done manually, by a standard report from their system, or by a locally written program -- I would like to compare your findings with mine. And I would like to hear from anyone who gives high marks to their integrated system for being able to produce helpful collection development statistics, especially if they combine circulation data with acquisitions data. Please contact me directly, and I will report to the list. Thanks, Marcie =================================================================== Marcie Kingsley Head, Acquisitions/Serials Dwight B. Waldo Library Telephone: 616-387-5147 Western Michigan University Facsimile: 616-387-5193 Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5080 Internet: kingsley@wmich.edu =================================================================== ****** END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 6, No. 12 ****** END OF FILE ******