I have to concur with those who have spoken in favor of having a subscription agent.  It makes sense to look at ordering direct, especially with more things going online, but I truly think that the money saved would be lost anyway in staff time.  I can’t imagine managing all of our subscriptions without Ebsco’s help.  Some titles never give me problems, but others are nothing but a headache and it’s good to know that I have someone who will advocate for our institution and has built up a contact base with publishers that will guarantee that somehow the situation will be rectified, whether that includes getting our money back or getting the issues we missed.  Instead of contacting them myself and being passed around or ignored, I have someone who is dedicated to making sure we get what we pay for.  And, while they aren’t always perfectly accurate, Ebsco DOES keep track of what’s happening with the world of periodicals and will let you know when a title changes or is cancelled. It’s also much easier to claim, keep track of registered e-journals, and just keep track of your purchase orders in general.  I’ve also used the missing copy bank more than once.

If you are considering going direct, also consider that you will have to devise a way in which to monitor subscriptions and keep track of which publishers will automatically invoice you and which ones need to be prompted.  Then you have to keep track of terms because everything will expire on a different date.  We only order about 30 titles directly, and this is an annoyance for me even now.  I’d also spend a lot more of my time claiming and arguing with publishers about proof of payment.  I’ve also had many problems with publishers sending things to the college that never reach me because it isn’t addressed specifically to our library.  It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

I personally think that the benefits Ebsco offers are worth the fee they charge.  I would only truly consider ordering all direct if we had 100 or less print titles.  Even that would be a huge headache.

Abbigail Gregg

Library Technician

Geneva College - McCartney Library

acgregg@geneva.edu 

724-847-6693

I also will weigh in on the side of keeping the vendor if at all possible and I, too, would like to see that “good study” on a cost benefit analysis. 

We are not with Ebsco, but do have a vendor.  We have changed some titles over, over the years, to direct, and have done more so now with the electronic access.   Some are fine, but some are nightmares - the pub/provider has their own way of doing things.  Our vendor uses our PO numbers, the invoices are sent EDI, packages are grouped and identified, etc.  From others we’ve gotten invoices identifying titles by either shortening them to something unrecognizable (to me) or listing them in some weird order (putting “The” in front of some titles, not others).  Packages are not together, they’re just another line item priced at 0.

Some literally take me hours and I am truly wondering how much we are saving.  In addition, not all publishers bill - or they bill a generic entity such as “Accounts payable” which at this university at least, practically guarantee it will never find me.  So I also need to keep track of subscription periods and request invoicing.

It’s something to think about long and hard, IMO.

Hi Beth,

You have a fundamental misperception in how subscription agents price. By and large, they are not able to get lower prices due to bulk ordering. Usually, bulk ordering requires that the journals, etc. all be delivered to the same address. Rarely, that is available to large public libraries with many branches, or for consolidation services that are used by international libraries. But for libraries like yours and mine, not so much.

The price you pay is determined by the discount (or absence of one) that the agents are given by publishers. EBSCO and all other agents have personnel who negotiate with all publishers for better discounts. The higher the discount a publisher gives an agent, the lower your service charge. At some point, you’ve probably heard an agent representative say something about the “mix of your list”. The agent evaluates all the titles in your list – some with high discounts, some with low discounts, some with no discount – and assigns a service charge (or even, in the case of public libraries, a discount!) based on the profitability of your list.

As for those titles which offer a 25% off cover price if you renew direct (mostly trade or consumer oriented titles, I’m guessing?), it’s not that EBSCO won’t match that. It’s that they can’t. The publishers will not let them make that offer.

And as for the print+online packages, again, agents offer what the publishers allow them to offer.

As Dana Belcher mentioned in another response, record keeping even for 300 titles is a chore. I wouldn’t want to do it without an agent!

Hope this helps.

Katy G.

PS I used to work for EBSCO, but I left them in 9/2007.  J

Katy Ginanni, Collection Development Librarian

Hunter Library

Western Carolina University

176 Central Drive

Cullowhee, NC 28723

ksginanni@email.wcu.edu

828-227-3729 office

library.wcu.edu

Discover | Imagine | Connect | Read

Hello list!

I know this is a question that has come up over and over in the history of serials management (and yes, I am searching the list archives!), but I still thought I would ask the collective wisdom of the list. We currently use EBSCO to order most of our serials. However, over the years we have noticed that EBSCO no longer offers monetary benefits it used to (since we apparently don’t count staff time as a benefit). Day after day we are offered deals directly from publishers (renew now for 25% off cover price!) that EBSCO either can’t or won’t match. I thought that one of the benefits of purchasing through an agent was that they could negotiate lower prices due to bulk ordering, but it doesn’t seem like this is the case with EBSCO.  Furthermore EBSCO seems to be offering less and less print + online packages. I don’t know if this is because the publishers are being greedy or what, but titles we used to get both print + online for $200 we can now get a print copy for $200 and a separate online subscription for $150… We are a relatively small library (around 300 serials). So my questions to the list are: Has anyone gone from a vendor back to ordering direct? Has anyone read a good study on a cost benefit analysis of publishers discount offers vs. purchasing through a vendor? Even though we are relatively small I would rather not go title by title to figure out if leaving our vendor would be worth it.

Please reply off list.

Thanks!

Beth Vernaci

Library Assistant

AFSCME Information Center

bvernaci@afscme.org

202-429-1057

***********************************************
* You are subscribed to the SERIALST listserv (Serials in Libraries discussion forum)
* For additional information, see SERIALST Scope, Purpose and Usage Guidelines.
***********************************************

***********************************************
* You are subscribed to the SERIALST listserv (Serials in Libraries discussion forum)
* For additional information, see SERIALST Scope, Purpose and Usage Guidelines.
***********************************************

***********************************************
* You are subscribed to the SERIALST listserv (Serials in Libraries discussion forum)
* For additional information, see SERIALST Scope, Purpose and Usage Guidelines.
***********************************************