Re: Librarians push back against complicated e-packages

["James A. Robinson" <jim.robinson@stanford.edu>]

> titles where we end up paying for what amounts to reduced value because of
> the difficulties in access. Is there a way around this? I'd look forward
> to hearing from anyone who has managed to circumvent these time-consuming
> problems!

I'd be surprised if the publisher and/or implementor of an online journal
wouldn't be very interested in hearing your complaints. If it's made known
that a customer has been unable to get a quarter's worth of "value" from a
subscription they have paid for, due to either poor customer service or
inflexible access control models, that should be strong incentive to fix
the problem.

I know some people might look at that last paragraph and say "But
shouldn't it be obvious to the publisher? They've been working on it for
months!" I don't think that's necessarily the case.  Sometimes it appears
as though different sections (customer service vs. technical implementors)
don't communicate as much as they should, and valuable feedback gets lost.

Of course, without knowing the details of problems you had, I can't say
whether a breakdown in communications might explain the lack of help you
discuss. It's also possible that a particular IT group at the customer end
is inflexible and unresponsive to questions whose answers are needed by
the publisher's site. I've seen both sides of the story, and I don't think
it's usually ill intent on one side or the other.


Jim