Colleen Kensinger, Head of Technical Services, Alameda County Law Library,
Oakland, California, asked me to forward her response to this posting:
Jacqueline Cantwell
Alameda County Law Library
Oakland, California
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Subject: RE: Matthew Bender's Subscriptions Policy
Date: Thursday, May 02, 1996 10:28AM
Would you like to reply that we have used this payment plan for the last 5
years. It was chosen deliberately to cut down the number of invoices, which
numbered in the hundreds, and on the Matthew Bender program, were reduced
to ONE. Each December MB sends us a list of all current holdings (their
initial invoice). The librarians and director do a review of these titles
held at main and branch libraries. They decide: (a) titles we would like
to continue for another year, (b) those we will put on hiatus, (c) those to
discontinue and, (d) those titles we would like to add or resume, if any.
This method does not prevent us from purchasing any new titles Matthew
Bender comes out with during the year, but it does lock us into our
decisions for one year. The first year of payment in this manner was
difficult, but manageable. After that, the director adjusted the budget
to accommodate this yearly chunk of money. When MB invoices you for each
and every release, you can only estimate what the total cost will be by
year's end. On the Matthew Bender Program the cost is exact.
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