I do much the same with the addition of typing my mailing label in a small program so that I can copy and paste it into an email when I am claiming a journal.  It saves needing to look up the label when claiming.

 

 

 

My rambling two cents, for what it’s worth--

 

We also use Millennium and do not have all the “bells and whistles” that cost extra, such as electronic claiming… and we too have had our staff cut drastically over the last few years. But claiming is still an important part of what I do (now with more help from other staff because of a reduction in my hours). On the other hand, our print subscriptions are still more numerous than our electronic subscriptions, so we are a little unique in that aspect.

 

We typically utilize Ebsconet for our Ebsco-subscribed serials, but we have quite a few “direct” subscriptions still.

 

For our “direct” subscriptions, I still do “manual claims.” However, I rarely send postal mail (aka “snail mail”) claims anymore because it costs more money than a phone call/e-mail, I get better response from phone calls/e-mails (typically), and postal mail takes significantly longer. I now only use postal mail if I cannot get a response from any other method, which is rare.

 

I did create my own letter template that I fill in for postal claims. It is much more time-intensive initially than just printing a form from Millennium, but much more understandable for publishers/vendors that had difficulty understanding the form from Millennium. The form confusion led to more time taken for explaining the form than it would have taken to just send a letter, so I started sending letters. I basically use the same concept with e-mail claims. The nice thing about e-mail claims is that I have the history of the claims I have sent (oftentimes in a string of back-and-forth e-mails).

 

When I make any claims, but especially important for phone claims where there is no written record, I put notes in the checkin box for the specific item I am claiming. I note the date of the claim, why I am claiming (sometimes it is just for a status update for something I know is several months or even years behind schedule), if I left a voicemail message or talked to a real live person, etc. I have found that keeping detailed but abbreviated records is vital.

 

None of this is automated, but it generally does not take too much time because I keep pretty on-top-of our subscriptions. I definitely prefer e-mail claims because I can search my e-mail to find out the history of prior claims for the same publication (how long it took to resolve, how many e-mails had to be sent, what the problem was the last few times, specific details that would take up too much space to note in the checkin record, etc).

 

As a positive spin on “manual” claiming-- I find it helps everyone involved to see if there is a pattern, which is not always as evident when everything is automated. If I just print and send a claim form (or if I were to do the electronic equivalent), the publisher sends the claimed item and everything appears to be fine on both ends. If I have to do this for every issue, but neither of us notices because we are doing everything automatically, we do not see there is a pattern and the root problem does not get resolved. Because we have several “repeat offenders,” it ends up saving tons of time on future claims if I am more involved in the claiming process in the first place (i.e. via “manual” claiming). Plus, it also helps me to catch payment problems more quickly (e.g. publisher never received the check, publisher applied our payment to the wrong account, etc).

 

~Leslie         

 

 

 

At my library, we use Ebsco for most of our subs, and I make my claims through Ebsconet or, in rare direct order cases, by contacting the publisher, usually through email.  I have never done a snail mail claim.

 

 

Abbigail Gregg

Library Technician

Geneva College - McCartney Library

acgregg@geneva.edu 

724-847-6693

 

 

 

 

I really had no idea that people still mailed in claims via the USPS.

Do many libraries still do this?

We use Swets for all of our print journals (most of our collection is electronic now) and submit claims through their website.

 

 

Pamela L. O'Brien

Library Assistant

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Biomedical Library

262 Danny Thomas Place

Memphis, TN 38105

901-595-3389

 

Email Disclaimer: www.stjude.org/emaildisclaimer
Consultation Disclaimer: www.stjude.org/consultationdisclaimer

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