ACQNET v8n008 (February 26, 1998) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/serials/acqnet/acqnet-v8n008.txt ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 8, No. 8, February 26, 1998 ======================================== (1) FROM: D. Wright SUBJECT: Electronic resources (27 lines) (2) FROM: S. Zeigfinger, J. Montgomery, C. Coulter (3 postings) SUBJECT: Vendor intrusion (80 lines) (3) FROM: B. Attebery SUBJECT: Gift policies (25 lines) (4) FROM: K. Johnson SUBJECT: Electronic materials specialist (30 lines) (5) FROM: J. Daniels SUBJECT: Invoicing system (29 lines) (6) FROM: B. Hall SUBJECT: RE: Eastern European vendors (28 lines) (1)-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 14:36:27 -0800 (PST) From: David Wright (Mississippi College) Subject: Electronic resources [Ed note: This is being reposted from COLLIB-L with the author's permission] Our V.P. for Business Affairs wonders how other institutions are dealing with accounting for expenditures for electronic databases, full-text, etc., particularly ones that are used through the Internet. Are they counted as capital expenditures (although the information is not owned) or as other types of expenses? With CD-ROM information, we "own" the information (sort of) so that doesn't create the dilemma that access to databases creates. Have any of you had discussions recently with your fiscal officers regarding this issue? Any help will be appreciated. David A. Wright Library Director Leland Speed Library/Mississippi College P. O. Box 127 Clinton, MS 39060 601.925.3438(voice), 601.925.3435 (fax) (2)------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Posting 1 of 3] Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 10:52:13 -0500 From: Susan Zeigfinger (Vermont Law School) Subject: Vendor intrusion [Ed. note: Following are two responses from ACQNET editorial board members] You may recall my e-mail query on approval plans and how they work in your libraries in terms of staffing and space requirements. I also specifically asked about Yankee and about using OCLC Promptcat. To my intense chagrin, I received telemarketing calls from two vendors (and you know who you are). They said they had read my e-mail and understood I was interested in ... blah,blah,blah. I said that I was interested only in my colleagues' responses, that I was not thinking of signing up for PromptCat, that I was not investigating approval plans in general, blah,blah,blah. At the second call, I was furious. If I had wanted information from these vendors, I would have asked them for it. To YBP's credit, they were polite enough not to call. Am I being unreasonable? Don't you think this is unwarranted intrusiveness and misuse of the list? Can anything be done to eliminate this sort of behavior on the part of vendors who monitor lists? Certainly, I shall be quite cautious about querying the list again. Susan Zeigfinger Associate Librarian, Technical Services Vermont Law School ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [Posting 2 of 3] Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 07:42:32 -0600 From: Jack Montgomery (Univ. of Missouri, Columbia) Subject: Re: Vendor intrusion Dear Ms. Zeigfinger, I can empathize with your plight, having received similar calls even when all I did was visit a Web site. The truth is, however, that these lists are not private in the way we may wish and hence we should never say anything that we do not want read by the world. The calls you received were pretty classless, but that's how marketing works. The marketer has to keep finding prospects to remain viable to his/her company. I have found that the telephone is making a resurgence as a means of private communication and will most likely remain that way. Best of luck, Jack G. Montgomery Technical Services and Collection Management Librarian Law Library, University of Missouri-Columbia +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [Posting 3 of 3] Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 08:25:19 -0600 From: Cynthia Coulter (Univ. of Northern Iowa) Subject: Re: Vendor intrusion You have another prime example of capitalism at work. The unnamed vendors see an opportunity; they seize it. Tacky, but not unlike the selling of the advance registration list for Midwinter ALA to the library vendors who then INUNDATED my home mail box with announcements about their products. (On an amusing note, I got one invitation to visit a booth two weeks after I got home from New Orleans. Ooops!) We at ACQNET don't sell our list to anyone, but we can't prevent a vendor from seeing a chance for a sale via one of our postings. Susan might take a page from the way some people handle telemarketers (the new bottom-feeders with lawyers). I refuse to speak to them at home and ask them to put me on their do-not-call list per the FCC regulation. I also tell charities (not obligated to maintain such a list) that I make it a practice of not supporting those charities that use telemarketers and leave the choice of my continued support up to them. It _has_ worked. Cynthia Coulter University of Northern Iowa (3)-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 10:36:43 -0600 From: Barbara Attebery (Alton Ochsner Medical Library) Subject: Gift Policies I am looking for copies of gift policies for donations, especially for donations of journals which are given on an ongoing basis. The Development Department at my institution is charged with setting costs for tax deduction purposes and is interested in gift policies from other institutions. Ours is a large hospital library but if anyone has a good policy and would like to share it, you can fax it to me at the number below. We would also be interested in gift policies for books and one- time donations of journals. Thank you, Barbara J. Attebery, MLIS Librarian - Technical Services Alton Ochsner Medical Library 1516 Jefferson Highway New Orleans, LA 70121 Ph. (504) 842-3760 Fax (504) 842-5339 (4)-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:10:19 -0800 From: Kathy Johnson (California Inst. of Technology) Subject: Electronic materials specialist We're currently trying to figure out the best way to deal with the extreme messiness of electronic journals. As many of you know, with regards to electronic journals, publishers do not always know what they are doing, certainly do not keep potential customers up-to-date, change their access policies and pricing overnight (again with no notification), and may or may not allow subscriptions through vendors. That's the least of it. Does anyone know of any academic libraries that have acquisitions librarians who specialize in electronic materials? We are considering this. How have other libraries been dealing with these problems? Katherine Johnson Head of Technical Processing Services Millikan Library 1-32 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 91125 (626) 395-6065, fax: (626) 792-7540 (5)--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 08:39:23 -0600 (CST) From: Jeanne Daniels (Wisconsin State Law Library) Subject: Invoicing system Can anyone suggest a basic invoicing system that can be used on a network? We are looking for the following: A network version of a Windows95-based software that will maintain a database of customers, do invoicing (of photocopies, faxes, etc.), keep track of accounts receivable (with aging), and allow posting of payments. Being able to search by various fields for customers would be helpful. We have tried "Quickbooks" which we liked very much, but can only have one person working with the data at a time. Sometimes, we need to have two different staff members using different functions at the same time. "Peachtree" is what we are testing now, but find it to be complex and difficult to work with. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Jeanne Daniels Acquisitions Librarian Wisconsin State Law Library 310 E. State Capitol Madison, WI 53702 608/266-1600, FAX 608-267-2319 (6)------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 14:54:18 -0800 From: Barbara Hall (Univ. of Southern California) Subject: Re: Eastern European Vendors [Ed. note: The first message referred to appeared in ACQNET Vol. 8, no. 6] Thanks to all for your earlier replies to our first message. The ALCTS/AS Publications Committee--Subcommittee on Foreign Book Dealers Directories is currently compiling a directory on Book and Serial Vendors for Eastern Europe. We still have a number of vendor names, cited by libraries, for which we have no current addresses. Can anyone provide addresses for the following? Durieux M. K. Konzorcij Jencikova Wasmuth KG (Macedonian materials) European Book Center Progress Books F. Pancner (Czech materials) Univerziyna Kniznica Please send information to: bhall@calvin.usc.edu Thanks. Barbara Hall ****** END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 8, No. 8 ****** END OF FILE ******