in the serials world the date september 1 is celebrated annually. it’s the day serials librarians around the u.s. return their journal renewal documents to their subscription vendors. returning the documents on that date mostly assures that subscriptions will be renewed on time and that print issues of journals will continue to arrive at the library and electronic issues will remain accessible via the web. returning the documents later in the year means that the publisher might not get the subscription renewal until too late and will stop sending issues or turn off access, creating gaps in the collection and gnashing of teeth from library patrons waiting to get their favorite journals.
the process starts usually in mid-june with the release of the renewal list from the subscription vendor. this list is a printed document hundreds of pages thick with all the subscriptions our vendor manages on our behalf, including information about the subscription term, format, current volume, and estimated price of each title. some libraries receive the document in the mail and simply mark changes on it and return the whole stack of papers to the vendor to enter the changes into the system. somehow we missed getting our document this year because we were busy moving from our old library to a new building. occasionally i’ll wonder about whose door that ream of paper is propping open… we didn’t stress about missing our printed renewal list because this year we downloaded it from our subscription vendor web site into excel.
we’ve been using the excel file to make notes and corrections for our internal office use, making changes in the file as if we were marking up the printed document. instead of returning a paper document or sending the excel file to the vendor we’re now in the process of updating the renewal form online with corrected fund codes, new order numbers, and changed formats. i’ve never used this subscription vendor’s online renewal form and am really enjoying the paperless process. on august 31 we’ll approve the renewal form online and our title list will be frozen with the new information, and an invoice will be generated. and on september 1 we’ll celebrate with champagne.
