Diane,

You should  notify your subscription agent to NOT renew for the
next subscription period and don't have any contact with the publishers.

Another thing to do (this is from personal experience) is make sure
you (over-?)annotate your cancellation decision everywhere in your records you could
possibly look in the future.  Be sure you annotate the WHY of cancellation
and the date in your own annotations for yourself -- I know that we consult
cancellation decisions from 15-20 years ago when considering whether
to re-instate/add a title.

And besides phone calls from publishers after cancellations (we get these very rarely), you
should expect to get paper renewal invoices in the mail.  Those pesky annotations
come in really handy when you get a renewal invoice that you aren't expecting.

Also, be prepared for the small group of publishers who figure if you're
cancelling next year's subscription, they can stop sending the issues you've
already paid for.  You really need to keep on top of what you've already
paid for and in some cases, be prepared to CLAIM, CLAIM, CLAIM those final issues!

Hope this helps!

Sue


Diane Westerfield wrote:

Hi,

 

I am undertaking my first large print journal cancellation project.  My question to you serials veterans is:

 

Do I need to notify publishers directly about these cancellations?  Or is it sufficient, as my customer service rep says, for our subscription agent to not place an order and that will signify as a cancellation?

 

I’ve seen a few expensive titles linger on a year later than they were supposed to because the publisher wasn’t informed in time of the intent to cancel.  We are cancelling many titles (of publishers of varying size and type) and counting on the cost savings going forward.  I don’t want to see a single publisher come back and charge us for unwanted print.  However, notifying several dozen publishers of specific title cancellations would be a lot of work, I’d rather avoid any unnecessary projects.  Any words of wisdom on this would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Diane Westerfield

Electronic Resources and Serials Librarian

Colorado College, Tutt Library

(719) 389-6661

(719) 389-6082 (fax)

diane.westerfield@coloradocollege.edu

 


-- 

   



 Sue Dresye
 Library Clerk 3
 F.W. Crumb Memorial Library
 SUNY Potsdam
 dresyesl@potsdam.edu
 (315)267-2480

Never meddle in the affairs of Dragons --
You may be crunchy and taste great
with ketchup!