Monday, January 22, 2007

They Really Don't Know

My job in the serials department of a local university library involves claiming missed issues. As everyone in the area knows, mail service, especially for periodicals, was interrupted well into 2006. Needless to say, many issues of most journals were missed.

Anyway, the sales rep for a large distributor forwarded us the following mail that she received from a the editor of a small magazine in Massachusetts:
As you can see there are a shocking number of missing issues from the libraries you handle. Either addresses are incomplete and the magazines are not getting to the correct individuals or there is a large amount of "lifting" of our magazine. It seems statistically impossible for the post office to be this bad, especially as our other subscribers don't miss issues except where they have moved.

--- paragraph with identifying details deleted---

In any case, we will supply missing issues for 2006 as supply lasts--for $5 each.

My initial reaction wasn't printable, but it is a small magazine that's probably not profitable. The sales rep (for the distributor) also forwarded her response which explained that mail service in New Orleans was interrupted for months after the hurricane.

I know that we received some of the missed issues, I'm not sure whether we've received all of them. At any rate that wasn't the point. Just a small example of how much people don't realize.

Comments:
[Similarly unprintable reaction]!!!
 
Tell me who it is...I'm in a mood.
 
I don't think I was supposed to copy that letter. Until I see whether the distrubtor's reply has any effect, I'll actually defer to DeBerry on this one.
 
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