Re: GEN: Ebsco. Why buy magazines there?

[Joan Kimball <jkim@BORG.COM>]

Here's my answer to Paula Keefe's query about using Ebsco for magazines.
Parts of her message are quoted below mine.

Paula: I throw out all the renewal notices from individual magazines and
simply renew through Ebsco.  Ebsco will send you a list in --is
it?--February showing what you bought last year, and you can mark the list
as your order for this coming year.

It is worth some higher prices to have your magazines consolidated in one
jobber or two.  It saves many hours of paper pushing on your part.  Ebsco
is a good jobber---occasional mistakes which they will make up.  They have
a comprehensive list, which is an advantage.  The disadvantage with Ebsco
is that almost always the price they quote goes up slightly before they
bill you.

On the other hand, I also buy some titles from a discount jobber who is
very reliable and never raises its quoted prices: Subscription Services of
America, 2163 Jackson Place, Bellmore NY 11710-1188; (1-800-603-2651).
They charge good rates for some popular titles; for example: Time Magazine,
52 issues, 29.97; Newsweek, 53 issues, 20.97; Sports Illustrated, 53
issues, 39.75; Jet, 26.00; Popular Science 15.94; Instructor 14.95.  But
not all titles are discounted.  Boys Life, for instance, and Consumer
Reports don't have any discount.  And their list is quite small compared to
Ebsco.

Joan

Paula wrote:
>.......I am receiving
>renewal notices directly from the magazines.  If I want to continue to
>place our orders through EBSCO, should I just throw out the magazine
>notices and assume that EBSCO will contact me to renew them in the spring?
>
>Another question:  I notice that several of the magazine renewal notices
>quote prices substantially lower than we are paying EBSCO.  Is there any
>reason to continue to buy through EBSCO when I can get the magazines
>cheaper directly from the publishers?  Does the EBSCO magazine purchasing
>service provide any value added service that might not be immediately
>apparent to me but would make it worth paying the higher prices to EBSCO?


Joan Kimball, Librarian (jkim@borg.com)
Clinton, NY
Hart's Hill Elementary School Library
Clark Mills Road, Whitesboro, NY 13492

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