Regrets for the late response.
First--
If you are still having difficulties I suggest you contact the appropriate person at Swets daily. Contact your fellow list members & have them do the same. When it’s up send them a Thank you note. Again suggest to your list friends do the same. Honey goes a long way.
In my opinion Readmore-Blackwell-Swets has always treated list members well. In the event it was down if a list member contacted Readmore-Blackwell-Swets the person would honestly tell the member the problem and give the resolution ETA. Yes, I repeatedly told them it would be very courteous if they sent a message to everyone on the member list but I never succeeded.
On Backmed we retained the email addresses with whom we corresponded. Whomever contacted Readmore-Blackwell-Swets would pass along the information, it would get around like a round robin letter.
Dan, I remember the Readmore days. You see, I was one of the inaugural members back in July 1995 when Readmore began Backserv! I was one that requested—pleaded that Backmed be created to separate the Science/Medical journals from the other Academic journals.
Because of my longevity I’m contacted with many, many questions by other members. As we continued to use Readmore-Blackwell-Swets as journal vendors I’ve had Account Reps to contact the appropriate person.
Unfortunately I’m rarely on the list now due to changes to Online subs & changes in job duties.
Good luck!
Carol
Carol S. Feustel
University of Cincinnati Libraries
Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library
Journals / Collection Services / Document Delivery / Interlibrary Loan
Box 670574
231 Albert Sabin Way
Cincinnati, OH 45267-0574
email: carol.feustel@uc.edu / phone: 513-558-0179 / fax: 513-558-4899
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Cowan, Cynthia D
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:00 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Backserv?
THANK YOU Dan! I could not remember all the particulars so could not jump in and explained half as well.
Cynthia Cowan
Head, Print Serials Acquisitions Section
E-Resources & Serials Management
CB# 3938, Davis Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: (919) 962-1067
Fax: (919) 962-4450
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of tonkery@mindspring.com
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 5:12 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Backserv?
Interesting discussion on Backserv. I am not sure if anyone remembers that Backserv was built as a free service over 20 years ago by Marilyn Geller and Amira Aaron when they worked for Readmore, one of the subscription vendors that Blackwell bought up and later part of the Swets merger. I was President of Readmore at the time and we had over 500 hospital library accounts and Backserv was a little project to help exchange back issues between hospital libraries. It was built as a free service using some extra server space as a community effort. No one has made a dime on it and it has just continued in the background humming away.... until Swets moved and perhaps someone just forget it was there.
Swets should be credited for just keeping the application working..... folks we are talking about 20 years now and no income. Just a service that was the creation of two fine concerned librarians that were working for a company that saw a basic need and did something about it. The fact that anyone still supports it is amazing. Even more amazing is that the service has lasted for 20 years!!
Dan Tonkery
President and CEO
Content Strategies
-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Woodward
Sent: Jan 14, 2011 8:52 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Backserv?
The comments were not 'inappropriate' in a public forum. Discussing your sexual proclivities in a public forum is inappropriate.
Her comments were uncharitable and assumed something (that a commercial company in a competitive industry is a price-maker in a serious way) that is almost certainly wrong.
We all ought to mind the p's and q's that matter and not invent unnecessary ones.
IW
On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 4:59 PM, Rebecca Martinez <rannmart@rulmail.rutgers.edu> wrote:
Katy,
Thank you for sending your response! I found the comments to be very inappropriate for a public forum.
Rebecca Martinez
Distributed Technical Services Coordinator/Serials Team Leader
Email: rannmart@rulmail.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University Libraries
Alexander Library
Distributed Technical Services
169 College Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Tel: (732) 932-7388 ext. 119
Fax: (732) 932-8141
From: "Katy Ginanni" <ksginanni@EMAIL.WCU.EDU>
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 10:46:13 AM
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Backserv?
Just because a company is in business to make a profit (most of them are; it’s kind of the point of capitalism) does not make them unethical. What you say here borders on the libelous. You should more carefully consider what you post in a public forum.
Katy G.
Katy Ginanni, Collection Development Librarian
President, NASIG
Hunter Library, Western Carolina University
176 Central Drive
Cullowhee, NC 28723
828-227-3729 office
828-227-7380 fax
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Melinda Shedlarz
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 8:43 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Backserv?
Well, it is a good thing they don't, isn't it since the list hasn't been functional for going on almost a month now.
We may not pay for this list, but I can guarantee you Swets finds other ways to price gouge. It is beyond a disgrace that there has been absolutely zero updates about this from this so called Swets representative. With their resources you'd think fixing a simple error such as this would be within their means.
Melinda J. Shedlarz
On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 9:37 AM, Sarah D Tusa <sarah.tusa@lamar.edu> wrote:
To my knowledge, Swets does not charge for using Backserv.
Sarah Tusa
Lamar University
From: "Melinda Shedlarz" <mshedlarz@GMAIL.COM>
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Sent: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 8:18:18 AM
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Backserv?
I'm very disappointed that the Backserv list is still not working correctly, and we've had no updates from the Swets representative either since her initial e-mail.
Another example of the corporate big wigs taking our money and running. (Huh??)
Melinda J. Shedlarz
--
I. Woodward
Serials Desk
Colgate University Libraries
Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, N.Y. 13346
Ph.: 315-228-7306
Fax: 315-228-7934
I haven't gone anywhere. I'm employed. - Joe DiMaggio [att.]