I've just received a confirmation of online access to a journal after
two weeks of intensive email correspondence with the publisher, the
subscription agent and the content provider, and cannot help thinking
there must be an easier way.
I received a notification from the content provider of online
availability of a journal title we subscribe to in print. I completed
an online activation form requesting access and supplied the agent's
reference number as requested. I received an email from the publisher
(in the US) that they could not locate our subscription. This was not
entirely unexpected since we use the agent's consolidation service and
the publisher may not have the library's address as the delivery address.
We contacted the agent to ask for the subscription reference number the
publisher requested. The agent emailed back a reference number. We
forwarded the number to the publisher. The publisher replied that this
was not the number they needed. We wrote back to the agent. All this
was interspersed with what seemed like daily automated email messages
from the publisher informing us that they failed to locate our
subscription record. Eventually an email from the publisher suggested
that we should look at the label on a recent issue. I had already done
so but all I could find was a label printed and attached by the agent.
There was no sign of a number in the format that the publisher required.
However, I did have another look and found that under the agent's label
there was a smaller label which had obviously been affixed by the
publisher. By removing the agent's label carefully I was able to find
the magic number that the publisher needed. I sent the number to the
publisher. They replied that the number actually referred to the agent
and could not identify us as the subscriber, but that the second number
I also supplied helped to trace our subscription although it was not a
valid number as it was for a subscription which had expired. (The
journal issue I found the label on was the January-February 2002 issue.)
They also explained that the reason why they could not trace our
subscription was because our order had been placed through an agent.
(I thought we'd already told them this!) Incidentally we have an
agreement with the agent to arrange online access automatically if it
is available as part of the print subscription and have given them our
preferred access routes.
Was it worth the effort? I hope so - when our users can access the
contents of this journal online - apparently no issues are avaialable
online yet! But there must be a less time-consuming way to arrange
online access to electronic journals...
Mieko
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Mieko Yamaguchi [log in to unmask]
Technical Services Manager/System Coordinator +44 (0)1248 382970
Main Library, University of Wales Bangor, UK +44 (0)1248 382979 (Fax)
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