Subscription Agents' Catalogues: Goldmine or Minefield?

Abstract

ing info. no no no Yes no Yes Subscription price is one of the vital elements of information that these catalogues hold. No one catalogue will give more up to date price information than another but the agent catalogues will usually give more up to date prices than the Bowker publications. However great care should be taken in interpreting the price given. All of them are rather shy when it comes to the question of agent handling charges and the inclusion or exclusion of them from the subscription price as it appears in the catalogue: Blackwell lists all prices in sterling including agent handling charge, if any. The subscription price for UK libraries is given. Dawson list all prices in sterling excluding agent handling charge. The subscription price for UK libraries is given. Ebsco list prices,in US dollars except Canadian publications (Canadian dollars) and Australian publications (Australian dollars). The subscription price for UK libraries is given. This is in $US even for British publications. Price excludes agent handling charge. Faxon list all prices in US dollars. This is subscription price for US domestic customers only. It excludes agent handling charge. Swets list price in currency of country of publication. The subscription price for UK libraries is given. It excludes agent handling charge. Prices only act as a guide and cannot always be taken as a firm figure for the year ahead. Currency fluctuations, publisher repricing after notifying agents, extra issues (what we might call the 'Elsevier problem'), are three of the more obvious reasons why prices will change. Only Blackwell I appear to include handling charge in their listed Seriaki Vol.1, no 1, March 1988 Subscription Agents' Catalogues price and this should be taken into account when checking price. From a British point of view the Faxon catalogue should only be used for price information as a last resort, Ebsco as second last. The Swets catalogue should be the first choice if foreign publications are being considered for purchase direct. Most of the catalogues could be made more useful, or at least easier to use. Dawson and Blackwell could start by integrating their continuations listing into the main sequence and thereby save the effort of checking for obscure titles in two sequences. This would oblige Dawson to abandon the rather odd way they list their continuations at present. Faxon, with such an otherwise comprehensive catalogue, should start including prices for non-US customers. It is what we should expect from a leading international subscription agency. Ebsco produces a most useful catalogue. It is only a pity that it is claimed by relatively infrequent users to be difficult to use because of dense and (perceived) confusing layout of information. In order to keep the catalogue a manageable size (it was an unwieldy two volumes but is one again) yet retain all the information that makes it valuable, there is probably only a limited amount that can be done. The first priority should be to improve the very inadequate guide to the catalogue which is, almost unbelievably, hidden away on the 30th (unnumbered) page. The vital information about pricing in American, Canadian and Australian dollars only (on the face of it a rather odd decision) appears on page 3 amidst the summary of Ebsco services and completely divorced from the other information about the catalogue. It would appear that inadequate thought has been given to the finishing touches of this catalogue. All five catalogues would benefit from having a fold-out key to the codes used inside. This would circumvent the problem of referring back and forward, which is irritating, when numerous titles are being checked for different information in several catalogues. More information on cessations and changes of title would also prove useful. The Bowker publications can be invaluable for this information. Overall the Swets catalogue appears the ideal compromise between the somewhat daunting and transatlantic biased catalogues of Ebsco and Faxon and the smaller British catalogues of Dawson and Blackwell. Each catalogue has its own particular merits, but Swets provides the basic essentials for ordering: identifying existence of titles, identifying publisher and country of publication (to establish how to obtain them) and accurate price. But even it is not perfect. We have no idea whether the publisher price will be the Swets price. We also lack useful information given by some other catalogues, notably information on the availability of idexes for which we have to consult the catalogues of Blackwell and Faxon.