Hi,
Sandra is absolutely right. One of the reasons librarians have had to get
involved in the whole process of setting up access to many of their
subscriptions is because the current system in many cases just doesn't work.
I am sure that most of us (librarians) would rather we didn't have to take
on this additional workload. Those of us who have taken on this workload
over the years probably thought that this would be a short-term measure
only.
Just one small example out of many I have at the moment:
We recently upgraded our subscription to the British Journal of General
Practice to online only for the 2005 subscription year, but we still don't
have access via IngentaConnect where this journal is hosted. We contacted
both the publisher and the distributor to try and find out why we didn't
have access, but no one could help us. I did manage to get the magic number
from the distributor, so I guess it's up to me to go and request access via
IngentaConnect.
However, this really isn't good enough. I thought publishers/agents send
files to IngentaConnect so that our online access is set up from year to
year, but again we are unclear about whether this is systematically done. We
want not only our online subscriptions to be set up for us automatically,
but to have some kind of notification that this has happened (just like we
want to know when subscriptions fall down).
Some publishers e.g. Nature Publishing Group do send us emails confirming
our orders and providing relevant instructions on how to activate access.
Other publishers e.g. Blackwell Publishing do sent us updates which confirm
the renewals of our subscriptions. Some services e.g. Highwire provide us
with alerts when subscriptions fall over. However these are rare occasions.
Mostly it is left to librarians to check that their access to their
subscriptions is OK.
Am I being unfair?
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 s morris
Sent: 17 January 2005 10:00
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: CHEST Subscription Gracing .... and 'activation'
On a more general note, I'm afraid I've never quite understood why
activation by the librarian is very often needed. Sometimes, even when we've
filled out a licence (sometimes but not always required) and given our IP
addresses, we still have to go through the time-consuming process of
activating online access (sometimes made more difficult because we do not
have ready access to the appropriate subscription number).
When an order is processed the print version is simply despatched, but to
get the online version an extra step has to be carried out by the
subscriber.
Sandra Morris
Electronic Information Development Officer
Subject Support & E-Library Team,
Information Services,
Hugh Owen Library,
University of Wales,
Aberystwyth,
Ceredigion, SY23 3DZ
====================================
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: 01970 621892
FAX: (01970) 622404
Tîm Cynorthwywyr Pwnc ac E-Lyfrgell,
Gwasanaethau Gwybodaeth,
Llyfrgell Hugh Owen,
Prifysgol Cymru,
Aberystwyth,
Ceredigion, SY23 3DZ
====================================
Ffon: 01970 621892
====================================
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Welch
Sent: 14 January 2005 17:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: CHEST Subscription Gracing
Hi Lesley, thanks for the nice note. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss
this and look forward to comments from other listserv members.
I will be meeting with our internal customer service group and hope that
with the publicity around this issue that you've raised on this list, we can
find ways to solve this problem in the future.
I've already heard from one of our agencies that receives these list emails
and they want to talk about the problem. So steps in the right direction
look promising!
Best regards,
Steve
On 1/14/05 9:44 AM, "Lesley Crawshaw" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I wanted to thank Stephen Welch, for explaining to this list on the
> 5th January 2005 (and in more detail to myself in a separate email)
> how the University of Hertfordshire had lost access to CHEST because
> of variations in our address sent by agencies from one year to the
> next. I believe this is one of the first times that a publisher has
> been so open to this list about how such problems can arise, which I
> personally found very refreshing. Yet, having seen several larger
> publisher-generated lists of our subscriptions on an annual basis, I
> know that this is a problem shared by all of us, whether we are
> agents, publishers, intermediaries or subscribing organizations. Are
> there other publishers out there who might like to "come out" and give
> their perspectives on the problems that they face in matching
subscriptions from year to year and how this whole area can be improved?
>
> Institutions are also implicated in these problems, because so many of
> us are constantly undergoing reorganizations (including my own) which
> may lead to changes in addresses which may lead to loss of access
> because subscriptions aren't matched up.
>
> 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 Stephen Welch
> Sent: 05 January 2005 18:05
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: CHEST Subscription Gracing
>
>
> Hi, my name is Stephen Welch. Iım the Executive Editor for CHEST. My
> ears are burning! I hope participating in this list will help me get
> some additional appreciation for the types of problems you all
> experience with e-journals.
>
>
> Lesleyıs experience is unfortunate, and complicated by the fact that
> when the agency sent us information for her 2005 subscription, the
> address was different, including the city (2005 was Hatfield UK, 2004
> was Hertfordshire UK).
>
> Because of the discrepancy we treated the 2005 info as a new account
> because it did not match what was in our system from 2004. That is why
> Lesley's organization received a new ID number for their 2005 account,
> which is why our activation of the grace period didn't solve her
> access problem and then she had to activate an entirely new account.
> We sure apologize for the inconvenience sheıs experienced.
>
> The good thing to come out of this is that we found out our
> subscription gracing had not been activated and we have since
> corrected that problem. In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson, "D'oh!"
>
> However, we're not sure how to circumvent account info that differs
> from one year to the next. We will discuss with our agencies to see if
> there is a way we can try to prevent this in the future.
>
> If any others experience similar problems with CHEST, please don't
> hesitate to contact me.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve
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