-----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
Von: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]Im Auftrag von Peter van Laarhoven
Gesendet: Freitag, 27. September 2002 12:17
An: [log in to unmask]
Betreff: LWW journals and HighWire: access hurdles


Dear colleagues,

The message below was sent today to the American Heart Association
and several other scholarly societies that publish their journals
with Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, and host them on HighWire.

As the message states we feel more or less trapped, because the
contact addresses on HighWire's journal information pages take us to
an LWW representative, who routes our request to the OVID
representative for our country, who says he can only help us with
access through [log in to unmask]

The situation I sketch is representative for at least the
Netherlands. I would very much like to know if libraries from other
countries face the same hurdles, and what we could do to get LWW to
handle our requests for online access on HighWire?

The latest related message I see on this list dates from May 5, 2002,
when Shirley Lam from Hong Kong complained about being forced to go
through OVID.

Kind regards,
Peter van Laarhoven.
=====================

Dear staff member of the American Heart Association,

I am writing to you on behalf of the libraries of the University of
Groningen (Netherlands). We hope you can help us clarify the future
of online access to your journals through HighWire. It is because we
feel trapped in a circle if we ask for information about this through
your representatives in The Netherlands, that I approach you
directly.

We have great trouble in obtaining Access through HighWire, and are
very unhappy about this. Your journals are indispensible for us. The
access problem seems to apply to many, possibly all, European
libraries.

Your journals are published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW),
and hosted on the platforms of both HighWire and [log in to unmask] We
strongly prefer the HighWire platform, as it is functionally superior
to the other and we already have many journals through HighWire.

If we try to get online access to your journals, we are routed by LWW
to OVID, and are told that the only way they can offer us access is
through [log in to unmask] The reason behind this is, probably, that
both LWW and OVID are subsidiaries of Wolters Kluwer, the Dutch
publising conglomerate. Sometime earlier this year the mother company
appears to have decided that online access to LWW journals should be
exclusively offered on the Journals@OVID platform.

We feel this policy of Wolters Kluwer and LWW is detrimental to our
interests, since we are forced to use an inferior platform. A
superior platform is available, and has been so for years.

Therefore my question to you is: is there some way we can obtain
access to your journals through HighWire, and if so, how should we do
it?
If not, and your association somehow complies with Kluwer's and LWW's
policy, could you please give us some indication of why it chose to
do so?

I hope you can answer these questions.
Thank you and kind regards,
Peter van Laarhoven.
------- End of forwarded message -------
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Peter van Laarhoven
Elektronische Bibliotheek       Online Information Librarian
Universiteitsbibliotheek                  University Library
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen          University of Groningen
Postbus 559                                      P.O.Box 559
9700 AN GRONINGEN                          9700 AN GRONINGEN
E-Mail   : [log in to unmask]                The Netherlands
tel.     : (+31) 50-3637763
fax      : (+31) 50-3634996
homepage : http://www.ub.rug.nl
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