Hi,
I am pleased to inform the list that our problems with access to the
Scientific American Online Archive have now been resolved and our
institutional access reinstated. I also now know that we have not been the
only institution affected by this. Apparently the problem was caused during
the transfer of responsibility for the licensing from Macmillan Publishers
UK to their American company. It's just a pity that no one at Macmillan
Publishers UK was able to tell me that this had happened, and take some
responsibility to assist me in getting this sorted out, when I spoke to them
yesterday. Basically I was left to try and find a contact in the States who
I can speak to to get this sorted out. When I finally reached this person
and explained the situation, our records were quickly retrieved, the problem
pinpointed (but not identified to me) and our access restored. Thanks to
Linda Chu, Macmillan Online Publishers, North America, for getting this
resolved so swiftly. I still don't know when our loss of access occurred.
However, the ease with which a subscription can fall over without the
subscriber being notified remains of major concern. We are after all paying
real money for these products. Such loss of access also reflects badly on
the subscribing institution as we usually take the blame when subscriptions
fall over. Linda Chu said that all existing subscribers had been notified of
this, but couldn't explain why an email had not come to myself. I guess it's
just another glitch in the system!
All these problems tend to be quite easy to sort out once you can get to
speak to the right person, but why are they arising in the first place? and
why are their no additional measures in place to identify potential
problems.
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 J.C.Gerrard
Sent: 09 July 2002 09:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Scientific American Archive Online - Change of "Licensing
Agent" and Loss of Online Access
Lesley,
We also stumbled across this problem over the last couple of days, when we
acquired some dusty old vols of Sci Am and checked the website. I have a
number of contacts involved in setting up the original order, but I
imagine they, like the site, have been superseded. I'll let you know if
we make any progress.
As you say we ideally need to pinpoint the date of loss of access. We are
being audited this week and such losses of access could prove difficult to
explain. Does anyone have the time to carry out such systematic checks
and if so to what level - title, year, issue ...?
Colin
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Colin Gerrard E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Head of Technical Services
Templeman Library Telephone: 01227 764000 ext 3567
University of Kent Direct line: 01227 823567
Canterbury Fax: 01227 827107
Kent CT2 7NU
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Mon, 8 Jul 2002, Lesley Crawshaw wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Quite by accident during another enquiry (is that not the way it always
> happens?) I have just found that we have lost our institutional online
> access to the Scientific American Archive Online. Having not received an
> invoice for this site license for this year I went straightaway to the web
> site where I found that we were no longer being recognised on the basis of
> our IP address and found that we are being asked to login. Once again we
are
> perfectly willing to pay our bills, but can't pay them if we don't get
> invoiced. Another concern, is when did we lose our access?
>
> We ordered a site license subscription to the Scientific American Online
> Archive back in February 2001 through Macmillan Publisher Ltd. I then
> contacted Macmillan Publishers Ltd who informed me that they were no
longer
> dealing with the Scientific American Archive Online and that all
> subscriptions had been transferred to Scientific American, Inc. As you can
> see the transfer of our online subscription has not gone according to
plan.
> Not one of the parties involved in this transfer of responsibility has
> bothered to contact us to keep us abreast of these changes.
>
> Although I received lots of fliers from Macmillan Publishers when they
first
> took over responsibility for the site license subscriptions asking us to
> sign up, I have not received any communication from Macmillan (or
Scientific
> Americna, Inc.) about this transfer of responsibility for the Scientific
> American Archive Online license to Scientific American, Inc. My email
> address and contact details are on the site license agreement as the
> contracts contact for the University of Hertfordshire. Once again a
> subscription of ours has fallen over without any of the two parties
> (formerly or currently) involved having contacted myself to explain the
> situation. What is the point in providing this contact information if
> publishers don't make use of it?
>
> I am currently trying to contact Scientific American Inc, to find out when
> they intend to restore our access, why we were not contacted about the
> change of "supplier", why we have not yet been invoiced for this
> subscription year, etc. etc..
>
> Have any of you who may also have had a site license agreement with the
> licensing agent, Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also found that your online
> access to this key and popular scientific magazine has been removed, or is
> this once again just bad luck for our institution?
>
> Finally, should we be entitled to compensation for the loss of access to a
> journal to which we have a signed license agreement??
>
> 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]
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
