Has anyone else been irritated lately by loss of access to Lippincott's
online titles? Our particular long-running problem (six weeks so far of
lost access) is Journal of Clinical Oncology. After a lot of to-ing and
fro-ing trying to find out why a paid subscription to this title was 'on
hold', I was forwarded a message from our subscription agent which went to
the NEYAL reps list. For those of you who haven't seen it, it might be of
use to repeat it here:
***** COPY MESSAGE *****
Dear NEYAL members,
It has been brought to our attention by our Publisher
Relations department that the above are making changes to their records, a
process
which we have been warned could temporarily affect the delivery of both
print and electronic titles.
LWW are assigning new reference numbers to many of our
subscriptions for two reasons:
1. They did not process our renewals/new orders correctly for 2002
2. They are updating all of their records so every customer
will have one reference number for ALL their subscriptions. This number
will then be used for electronic access.
They have advised us that unfortunately this means that
online access may be denied while the numbers are being changed. LWW will be
providing us with a complete listing of the new references in due course,
once
their work is complete.
[snipped out stuff about print]
Please be assured that LWW and Highwire (their access
provider), and LWW and our Publisher Relations team are working closely
together
to try and minimise the disruption to all concerned.
So unless I've misunderstood, LWW are quite happy to take our money (which
proves we still subscribe) but not to give us access either to current or
archive material, nor are they able to give us any indication of when the
titles concerned will be back online. There is no explantaion on the site,
just a message 'Your subscription is on hold'. We have heard nothing from
LWW even though we have named administrators of online subs. Am I naive in
thinking a blanket e-mail even to a list such as this wouldn't have been too
much trouble (can't see any in the lis-e-journals archives)?
Six weeks' lost access to a major medical title of use to our researchers is
a pretty major disruption. If anyone can shed any light on when LWW's
self-generated mess will be sorted out, I'd appreciate it.
Louise
Louise Cole BA ALA
Electronic Resources Co-ordinator
Brotherton Library
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
tel 0113 343 5502
fax 0113 343 5561
e-mail [log in to unmask]
|