Re: Registering with Wiley/encyclopedias

[Kent Mulliner <mulliner@ohiou.edu>]

I am sympathetic with the problems in registering that Chuck identifies
but suggest that he understates the problem by half.

In viewing the "click" license, I was reluctant to commit the state of
Ohio to the jurisdiction of New York courts and sent an e-mail message to
that effect, requesting what is usually a pro forma change, to the address
provided by Wiley in the middle of last week.  With no word from Wiley, I
tried phoning at the beginning of this week only to find that Wiley staff
seemed unfamiliar with the electronic version of the encyclopedia. The
first person who answered the phone referred me to the "books" section but
that person was unaware of the electronic edition.  She passed me around
the company until I was finally told to address the problem to Tech
Support and transferred me there.  After 45 minutes on hold, I accepted
the suggestion to leave a phone message (with the assurance that Tech
Support would return the call).  Nothing since.

At this rate, we'll need a staff member just to spend his/her days trying
to contact Wiley.  Lest this sound like an attack on a single publisher, I
have encountered similar responsiveness from Swets & Zeitlinger (for
e-journal access) that is now stretching into months to try to resolve.

	Kent Mulliner, Ohio University

At 07:51 PM 4/13/1999 EDT, you wrote:
>We purchased from one of our standard book vendors Wiley's Encyclopedia of
>Electrical and Electronics Engineering a rather expensive purchase! With
>the purchase of the set, Wiley offered "free" for a year access to the
>"online" version, whatever that might mean. So far through repeated phone
>calls, we have been totally unable to register our institution or any
>workstations for this "free" access.
>
>The form for Online Account Activation came with the product and basically
>sends you to the Web site <http://www.wiley.com/eeee/activate>, gives you
>a password (a 17 digit number with ample opportunity for error in
>reproducing) to use. The registration form asks you pertinent information
>like billing address, contact, etc. You are asked to provide the name of
>the vendor supplying the product and invoice number (if not Wiley). The
>Standard License Agreement is also at the web site, and you have to
>indicate compliance with that to go on. The IP address is the sticking
>problem because they demand Class C network addresses, and give you a
>limited number of those which would never suffice for this campus, and
>barely so for the Library alone. While we do have a few pc's in the
>Library "hard-wired" to individuals, we generally assign only Class B IP's
>on campus. I have tried to explain to three different people that the
>152.15.xx.xxx address is limited to this campus, has no remote locations,
>not even dormitories, etc. I actually had one temporary person at Wiley
>call me back to see what I wanted (again) and promise she would get to
>someone in the technical area who would know. I emailed the techhelp
>address on the web site. I'm taking a break right now. The ignorance of
>the Wiley personnel doesn't seem to be as much of a problem as the
>incredibly stupid concept under which the company is operating in this
>matter of dual print/ electronic product offerings.
>
>This is NOT the way to become well known for electronic reference
>material, and given that Wiley is still advertising the "electronic"
>access with the set, problematic from an advertising perspective.
>
>We would LIKE to put the connect address or at least the information that
>this is available in our OPAC record for the set (preferrably with a live
>button for our in house users to be able to go to this directly).
>
>Our collection development librarian, who has spent a great deal of time
>trying to get us registered for this access, has just about given up
>hoping that Wiley will notice they have a problem, or have someone contact
>us who can solve it.
>
>Has anyone on the list successfully registered for this or similar Wiley
>add-ons??
> 
>chuck Hamaker
>Unc charlotte
>
>
K. Mulliner       Collection Development Coordinator & Asst. to Dean
"Owner"  CORMOSEA & cap-sea Electronic Mailing Lists

Ohio University Libraries    	Phone: 740-593-2707
Athens, OH 45701-2978, USA	FAX:    740-593-2708
mulliner@ohiou.edu