Does any library use webfeat from ISI.
What do you think of it
Fatme Charafeddine
Serials Librarian/Jafet Library
American University of Beirut
http://www.aub.edu.lb/
PO Box 11-0236
Beirut Lebanon
Fax 961 1 744 703
Tel. 961 1 350 000 (2608)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lesley Crawshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: E-Journal admin costs
> Hi,
>
> Subscription agents are absolutely essential to our work. Whilst it is
true
> that in some cases we have ordered journals directly through the publisher
> this is not the case for the majority of our subscriptions. As you say it
> would be a nightmare scenario if we had to deal with the large number of
> publishers whose journals we subscribe to. We are certainly under pressure
> to find the staff time to deal adequately with our existing problems.
>
> However I feel that agents have only themselves to blame for the current
> situation. When we signed up for a license to Nature Publishing Group's
> publications the speed with which we got our access set up was
phenomenal -
> I think it took a couple of hours from us faxing the license to them. That
> speed of response is almost unknown from agents and maybe a contributing
> factor for libraries to consider going direct to certain publishers.
However
> having said that we only do this for certain selected publishers and we
are
> keen not to see this increase any further than it is at the moment.
>
> Our recent experience of ordering new electronic only titles or even
> print/online titles through agents suggests that we have to wait a long
time
> from submitting the order to actually getting our electronic access set up
> (the only exceptions have been some of our NESLI deals), this seems to
> because when agents are involved monies must change hands between agent
and
> publisher before any access is considered. This is not always the case
when
> dealing direct with publishers whereby sometimes the order and signed
> license is enought to get your access turned on. I believe that Christine
> Fyfe at a recent UKSG seminar said that it had taken over 4 months to
> finally get electronic access up and running. We also had to constantly
> chase agents and publishers to find out why we still didn't have
electronic
> access to our subscriptions a month or so after ordering them. This isn't
> good enough. We've also experienced several problems whereby we asked for
> some subscriptions to be converted to eonly, but have since found were not
> converted to eonly. Many of us would wish that agents would updated the
> renewal process, which is almost still as it was in the print only days,
to
> more effectively tell us the options for the next subscription year +
> clarify exactly what subscription type we have at the moment. Last year I
> found that I had better information about options for 2002 subscriptions
> than our agents did, although this did require a large amount of effort to
> find this information.
>
> I think if agents improve their performance in the processing of eonly
> orders (or any kind of subscription with an electronic component) and get
> our access set up quickly and efficiently then we will be happy to use
them
> rather than going direct to publishers which has all the associated
problems
> described in the previous emails.
>
> Cheers
> Lesley
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Lesley Crawshaw, Faculty Information Consultant
> Learning and Information Services,
> University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB UK
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> phone: 01707 284662 fax: 01707 284666
> web: http://www.herts.ac.uk/lis/subjects/natsci/ejournal/
> list owner: [log in to unmask]
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jennings Val (RGZ)
> Sent: 10 July 2002 10:35
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: E-Journal admin costs
>
>
> Come to that, what do subscription agents feel about being by-passed?!!
> Suppose they became non-viable and we all had to deal with individual
> publishers: doesn't bear thinking of. Virtual one man bands in health and
> business sectors would find it nigh impossible to cope.
>
> Val Jennings email:
> [log in to unmask]
> Library Service Manager TN: 020 8302 2504
> Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust Fax: 020 8308 9384
> Frognal Avenue
> Sidcup
> Kent
> DA14 6LT
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shirley Sullivan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 06:26
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: E-Journal admin costs
>
>
> Dear List Members
>
> I have not done a study of the admin costs maintaining ejournals, but know
> that they must be high in our institution as they are taking up
> increasingly large chunks of time. I do know that in the past couple of
> years, since we have involved our agents, the time each title is taking is
> less than it used to be (There are just more e titles now)
>
> What I find particularly tiresome is the increasing tendency of the large
> publishers to deal direct with libraries rather than use agents, This
> increases the admin time spent, especially round renewal time, as we have
> to ensure we receive a renewal invoice and deal with the publisher
> separately. This is expensive in time and especially for our accounts
dept,
> \which needs to raise cheques for a number of publishers rather than write
> one large cheque to an agent.
>
> We have already had times when we have lost access to titles because the
> publisher did not send a renewal invoice.
>
> I have expressed my dissatisfaction to the publishers concerned but have
> got nowhere. Is this customer service????? Why can't libraries co\hoose
> whether to go direct or use an agent?Why should we be forced to go direct
> if it does not suit us?
>
> What do others think about this policy?
>
> regards
> Shirley Sullivan
> At 11:00 AM 7/8/02 +0100, Rollo Turner wrote:
> >Counting the cost of e-journal admin
> >Has anyone out there stopped to measure the costs of administering
> >e-journals? By this I mean the cost of subscription management and access
> >provision. It seems to me that as the process of acquiring journals
changes
> >a great deal of simplicity is being lost with consequent and often quite
> >substantial impacts on cost.
> >
> >As a result the ASA is interested in how we can ease this process, and
> would
> >welcome feedback on the following (and will be happy to share any results
> >with the list):
> >
> >1. Have your costs for e-Journal admin risen over the last year & roughly
> by
> >how much?
> >2. Do you see this increasing/decreasing over the next year?
> >3. In which areas does your agent help most/least currently?
> >4. If there were additional resources available from your agent where
these
> >would be best targeted?
> >
> >The background on this is that libraries now buy their electronic
journals
> >in a number of different ways - from the normal subscription process
> through
> >an agent to consortium deals no two of which ever seem to be similar let
> >alone the same! In some cases however the journals publishers request
that
> >the journals must be ordered directly - even when the library may have
> >preferred to use an agent. Others are acquired through consortia but may
be
> >paid for by the individual members through an agent, directly or through
> the
> >consortium. The so-called Big Deal with deep discount prices has also
> >greatly increased the administrative complexity for everyone concerned,
> they
> >tie in funds for lengthy periods of time and may, if budgets are suddenly
> >reduced, force libraries to cancel titles from smaller and high quality
> >society publishers to keep some of these Big Deals going.
> >
> >These different means of acquiring content mean that each individual
> library
> >has had to assume more control over the management and reporting on the
> >electronic journals taken. This is a role that is generally performed by
> >subscription agents who have the necessary infrastructure available to
> >provide value-added services such as special billing arrangements,
> >interfacing to library ILS services and management reporting. Instead if
> >each library is now doing more not less subscription administration the
> >overall costs are likely to rise in terms of staff time and resources
> >especially if libraries have to set up their own systems.
> >
> >Agents costs will also rise if more and more electronic titles are
handled
> >direct at the insistence of the publishers (generally the larger
> publishers)
> >leaving agents to handle the specialist, more varied and widely scattered
> >smaller publishers. According to the UK Competition Commission, the big
six
> >publishers account for about 66% of all expenditure on STM journals for
UK
> >libraries. If their titles are removed from the agency list, the average
> >cost per subscription will increase very significantly and, obviously,
> >additional costs will eventually be reflected in their bills to
libraries.
> >
> >
> >With this trend and pricing models requiring a variety of different means
> of
> >handling electronic journals, the complexity and cost of handling
> >subscriptions may well be increasing much faster than we currently know.
> >Agents of course were put on this earth to help reduce the libraries
costs
> >and administration enabling them to reduce the amount of unproductive
> >administration performed by skilled individuals. It seems this sensible
> >approach has gone into reverse!
> >
> >Isn't it time we thought about simplifying the system, so that once again
> it
> >can be handled by properly qualified intermediaries to the benefit of
all?
> >This may require agents having to learn new and sometimes costly skills,
> >publishers agreeing to work with them on electronic journals as they do
> with
> >paper, and agents and consortia agreeing to cooperate more closely in the
> >future.
> >
> >If the customers want this to happen, the suppliers will eventually
provide
> >it. And it would be good for publishers since it would make it simpler
for
> >them to sell their journals individually or in packages to their clients
in
> >a well managed supply chain, thus reducing their administration costs
also
> >(publishers subscription management costs may also have increased by
> between
> >5 and 15% according to Sally Morris). In short, such a move would be
worth
> >it financially to everyone.
> >
> >Rollo Turner
> >Secretary General
> >Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries
> >
> >PS apologies for cross posting
>
>
>
> Shirley Sullivan
> Electronic Information Coordinator
> Information Division
> University of Melbourne
> Victoria
> Australia 3010
> email [log in to unmask]
> phone + 61 3 8344 5363
> fax + 61 3 8344 5221
>
> Mailing address:
> first floor, Baillieu Library
> University of Melbourne
> Victoria
> Australia 3010
>
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