All,
There was an announcement about North American theses in the September 2001
Customer Update, which stated the British Library's position as follows:
'The BLDSC began to collect North American theses in the 1960s because they
were difficult to obtain by the general public. Since then, we have acquired
more than 475,000 titles.Increasing pressures on our acquisitions budget
over the years have forced us to look critically at how we best spend
available funds. This material is low-use and high-cost per use. Cutting
on-demand purchase was identified as an option almost 10 years ago, but
instead the BLDSC chose to ask customers to pay a higher loan price in an
attempt to offset the significant acquisitions cost.
Despite charging customers an uncomfortably high price, the shortfall
between income and spend has continued to grow and has now reached a level
that we can no longer support. It is with regret that we have to announce
that from 1 September we shall no longer be able to acquire this material on
demand.
The majority of North American doctoral theses are distributed by ProQuest
Information and Learning (formerly known as Bell & Howell/UMI). The UK sales
office may be contacted at:
ProQuest
The Quorum
Barnwell Road
Cambridge, CB5 8SW
Tel:01223 215512 Fax: 01223 215513
On a happier note, all of the 475,000 North American doctoral theses in
stock at the BLDSC will continue to be available for loan, so please try us
first for theses published up to 2000. The price charged to borrow one will
be reduced from 1 September 2001 from £20.60 to the standard loan price of
£6.39.'
Customer Services
The British Library Document Supply Centre Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1937 546060
Fax: +44 (0) 1937 546333
Email:[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: John Clarke [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 01 May 2002 11:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: BLDSC dissertations
Are list members aware of recent (and apparently unadvertised) changes to
the availability of American Dissertations?
One of our researchers has requested a 1999 dissertation which the BLDSC
does not hold. Instead of acquiring this from UMI - which I had assumed was
one of the fundamental for using the BLDSC - we are expected to order this
directly ourselves from UMI. The standard charge is 34 dollars even though
we would order it from UMI in Cambridgeshire.
Do other members of the list share with me the sense that the BLDSC is
abdicating its responsibilities to the academic research community by
devolving more of this (presumably unprofitable) business back to its
"customers"? I speak here as someone serving a 5*A rated postgraduate
research institute which also supports a world-class children's hospital.
Whilst on this subject, let us not forget the small volume customers that
the BLDSC no longer serves in its bid for (presumably) improved
productivity. When the BLDSC changed its charging policy a couple of years
ago, the Family Information Service at Great Ormond Street decided to stop
using the BLDSC since they clearly didn't want occasional users of their
services.
Your feedback is welcome - preferably to the list!
regards to all
john
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John Clarke
Librarian
The Friends of the Children of Great Ormond Street Library
Institute of Child Health
30 Guilford Street
London WC1N 1EH
Tel: 020 7905 2156
Fax: 020 7831 0488
email: [log in to unmask]
Homepage: http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/library
Catalogue: http://www.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~admin/webcat.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Coming soon to the British Library Galleries :
Trading Places : the East India Company and Asia (from 24 May)
Magic Pencil : Children's Book Illustration Today (from 1 November)
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