As the LA director responsible for LA Record and Appointments, I was very
concerned to see the recent exchanges regarding the late delivery or
non-delivery of these publications.

Regarding the 15th June issue of Appointments and the July LAR, I have
personally checked the posting dockets and these confirm that the mailing
was sent out on 12th June.  I have also verified that the number posted
matches our current membership numbers. Can I also point out that, as
holders of an ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) certificate, all our
mailings are carefully checked by the ABC auditors during which process
print numbers, postage dockets and our membership list are all crosschecked
in detail.

As my colleague Andrew Nelson-Cole has explained, members who have not
renewed their subscription by the end of April are withdrawn from our
circulation list and that sometimes accounts for non-receipt of copies,
particularly in May and June when members have not realised that their
subscription is still unpaid.

Appointments is published fortnightly on a Friday and our schedule at the
printer means that it is printed and despatched the Tuesday (or very
occasionally the Wednesday) of that week to reach members by the Friday
publication date or the following Monday at the latest. On the Friday
publication date all jobs are additionally made live on our website
www.lisjobnet.org.uk

LA Record, as you know, is monthly and therefore its publication dates are
not absolutely regularly spaced apart.  For information, for the rest of
this year publication dates are as follows:

August - publication 27/7
September - 24/8
October - 21/9
November - 19/10
December - 16/11

Every issue of LAR should also be accompanied by an issue of Appointments.
If it isn't - as I note from one email sent in - then this can only be
explained by the automatic feeder line not picking it up during the
collation and despatch process.  There are a number of inserts and
additional flyers etc each month and occasionally  one element can be
missed.

I appreciate that some members are receiving publications late but I must
assure you that we work to a tight shedule and all leave the printer on the
same day. We are then in the hands of the Royal Mail.  Unfortunately some
areas suffer from a poorer service than others and post is delayed, which is
clearly beyond our control.

I accept that, with the size of our mailing and our postal delivery service,
some copies will inevitably go astray.  If members do not receive their
copies, please telephone our membership department who will be happy to send
you a replacement.

I do hope that this fully explains the situation.

Janet Liebster
Managing Director
Library Association Enterprises