Perennial renewal problems with ASCE journals

[kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de]

Dear list members,

I would be interested to know if we are alone in our experiences with ASCE
online journals. For the third time after 2001 and 2002, we have lost
online access to our package of ASCE journals. Online Service has been
interrupted since April 1, 2003. This time, we received an early warning
on March 12 (ASCE Online subscription alert) that our subscriptions had
not been renewed. On receipt of this alert, our library, in cooperation
with our subscription agency, writing in parallel, immediately provided
the publisher with all details of our subscription and payment, including
a copy of the processed check which was faxed in mid March. Payment had
already been made in mid November 2002, and the cheque had been cashed in
early December. We urged the publisher to ensure that online access to our
subscriptions would continue uninterrupted.

If there is a perennial mystery that baffles acquisition librarians it is
that every year again payments made through agencies don't show up in
publisher's records. No amount of grace period seems to help, it's only
effect being that problems show up later in the year. This time at least
we received an early warning, and we were optimistic enough to assume that
our immediate reaction could avoid interruption of online service for our
patrons on campus. Alas, ASCE did not bother to follow up our e-mail
exchange, and in the second week of April, we were alerted by one of our
patrons that online access had been cut off. We claimed again and asked to
restore online access immediately. No response so far! We are now
contemplating to ask for some refund of our subscription money if online
access is withheld any further.

Have other libraries had similar experiences?

Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, Stuttgart University Library

-- 
Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, Dipl.-Physiker, Bibl.-Rat
Fachreferent f�r Physik und Koordination elektronischer Ressourcen
Universit�tsbibliothek Stuttgart, Postfach 104941, 70043 Stuttgart
Tel +49 711 685-4780, Fax +49 711 685-3502, kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de