DON’T MISS OUR MARCH MADNESS SALE!

Our annual March Madness sale is in full swing. This year we are offering a 22% discount* on published titles from our stock publisher list. This is a great opportunity to save some money, especially with all the budget cuts libraries are facing these days. If anyone needs me to pull a list of books in a particular subject area or a DCT purchase history report, please let me know.

We have also compiled our Average Price Report for 2010. This list shows the average price of books, by NLM class for 2010. We are expecting an 8% increase in the price of books for 2011. This is explained in the letter that accompanies the report. We hope you will find this information useful for budgeting purposes.

We continue to receive more and more perpetual access titles from ebrary. There are over 350 Brandon-Hill and DCT titles available for purchase. Please contact me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com for a complete list.

On a lighter note…I was in my kitchen the other day and my nine year old son asked, “Do you like Baker & Taylor?” I didn’t know how to respond. I wanted him to know that even though they are a competitor, I respect them and the services they provide to librarians. Before I explained all this I said, “Why do you ask?” He said, “You always drink water out of that Baker & Taylor water bottle.” Needless to say, I laughed at myself for thinking he would even know about Baker & Taylor and the fact that I have no shame about using a competitor’s giveaway.  :)

Hope everyone is able to take advantage of our March Madness Sale! Contact me if you have any questions. ashleyw@mattmccoy.com , 800-633-2665 x.374.

* The exception this year is Elsevier titles and imprints (Mosby, W.B. Saunders, Churchill Livingstone, Academic Press, etc.) which will remain at a 10% discount. Certain other exclusions may apply based on publisher discount.

AJN Book of the Year Awards 2010

The Book of Year Awards for 2010 was just published in the most recent issue of the American Journal Nursing, January 2011 – Volume 111 – Issue 1 – pp 66-68. As it states in the article, the books are “The most valuable texts of 2010, as chosen by AJN’s panel of judges.” The following are links to the books on our website. You can also contact me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com and I can send you a pdf of the article or an Excel file of the list. Here are the winners:

COMMUNITY-PUBLIC HEALTH

Handbook of African American Health
Hampton, Robert L. / Hardcover / Guilford Publications Incorporated / Pub Date 07/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 1606237160
List Price: $85.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1606237160

CONSUMER HEALTH

My Pregnancy Pocket Guide
Wade, Aubrey RN, MSN / Spiral / Davis, F.A. / Pub Date 11/09 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0803621833
List Price: $19.99*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0803621833

Prescription or Poison?: The Benefits and Dangers of Herbal Medicine
Dasgupta, Amitava PhD / Softcover / Hunter House, Inc. / Pub Date 10/09 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0897935500
List Price: $19.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0897935500

Breast Cancer Companion: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
Sokolowski, Nancy RN / Softcover / Demos Publications, Incorporated / Pub Date 07/10 / ©2011 / Edition 01
ISBN: 1932603999
List Price: $16.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1932603999

CRITICAL CARE-EMERGENCY NURSING

ASTNA (Air and Surface Transport Nurses Association) Patient Transport: Principles and Practice
Holleran, Renee Semonin RN, PhD, CCRN / Hardcover / Mosby / Pub Date 09/09 / ©2010 / Edition 04
ISBN: 0323057497
List Price: $97.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0323057497

High-Acuity Nursing. Text with Internet Access Code
Wagner, Kathleen Dorman EdD, MSN, RN / Book with Ancillary Softcover + Internet Access Code / Prentice Hall Health / Pub Date 08/09 / ©2010 / Edition 05
ISBN: 0135049261
List Price: $87.09*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0135049261

Critical Care Nursing of Older Adults: Best Practices
Foreman, Marquis D. PhD, RN, FAAN / Softcover / Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated / Pub Date 11/09 / ©2010 / Edition 03
ISBN: 0826110967
List Price: $80.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0826110967

GERONTOLOGIC NURSING

Quick Reference to Adult and Older Adult Forensics: A Guide for Nurses and Other Health Care Professionals
Brown, Kathleen M. PhD / Softcover / Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated / Pub Date 05/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0826124224
List Price: $55.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0826124224

Integrating Gerontological Content into Advanced Practice Nursing Education
Auerhahn, Carolyn EdD / Softcover / Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated / Pub Date 06/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 082610536X
List Price: $45.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=082610536X

Palliative Care for Advanced Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Guidelines and Standards for Evidence-based Care
Martin, Gary A. PhD / Softcover / Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated / Pub Date 08/10 / ©2011 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0826106757
List Price: $60.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0826106757

HISTORY AND PUBLIC POLICY

American Nursing: A History of Knowledge, Authority, and the Meaning of Work
D’Antonio, Patricia / Hardcover / Johns Hopkins University Press / Pub Date 06/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0801895642
List Price: $60.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0801895642

Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War
Vuic, Kara Dixon / Hardcover / Johns Hopkins University Press / Pub Date 01/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0801893917
List Price: $50.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0801893917

Evidence-Based Design for Healthcare Facilities
McCullough, Cynthia RN, MSN / Softcover / Sigma Theta Tau International / Pub Date 08/09 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 1930538774
List Price: $39.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1930538774

HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE

Palliative Care for Advanced Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Guidelines and Standards for Evidence-based Care
Martin, Gary A. PhD / Softcover / Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated / Pub Date 08/10 / ©2011 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0826106757
List Price: $60.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0826106757

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Integrating Technology in Nursing Education: Tools for the Knowledge Era
Mastrian, Kathleen Garver PhD, RN / Softcover / Jones & Bartlett Publishing / Pub Date 03/10 / ©2011 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0763768715
List Price: $73.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0763768715

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Innovation Leadership: Creating the Landscape of Healthcare
Porter-O’Gra / Softcover / Jones & Bartlett Publishing / Pub Date 09/09 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0763765430
List Price: $75.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0763765430

Nurse Executive’s Coaching Manual
McNally, Kimberly MN, RN / Softcover / Sigma Theta Tau International / Pub Date 03/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 1930538952
List Price: $39.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1930538952

Eat That Cookie!: Make Workplace Positivity Pay Off…For Individuals, Teams, and Organizations
Jazwiec, Liz / Softcover / Fire Starter Publishing / Pub Date 09/09 / ©2009 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0984079440
List Price: $28.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0984079440

MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH

Maternal and Child Nursing Care. Text with Internet Access Code for mynursingkit
London, Marcia L. RN, MSN, APRN, CNS / Book with Ancillary Hardcover + Internet Access Code / Prentice Hall Health / Pub Date 03/10 / ©2011 / Edition 03
ISBN: 0135078466
List Price: $124.53*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0135078466

Physical Assessment of the Newborn: A Comprehensive Approach to the Art of Physical Examination
Tappero, Ellen P. RN / Softcover / NICU Ink Book Publishers / Pub Date 08/09 / ©2009 / Edition 04
ISBN: 1887571175
List Price: $70.75*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1887571175

Merenstein & Gardner’s Handbook of Neonatal Intensive Care
Gardner, Sandra L. RN, MS, CNS / Softcover / Mosby / Pub Date 04/10 / ©2011 / Edition 07
ISBN: 0323067158
List Price: $69.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0323067158

MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSING

Acute Stroke Nursing
Williams, Jane / Softcover / Wiley-Blackwell / Pub Date 04/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 1405161043
List Price: $54.99*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1405161043

How to Manage Pain in the Elderly
D’Arcy, Yvonne / Softcover / Sigma Theta Tau International / Pub Date 12/09 / Edition 01
ISBN: 1930538847
List Price: $29.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1930538847
NURSING AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation
Benner, Patricia / Hardcover / Jossey-Bass Incorporated, Publishers / Pub Date 11/09 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0470457961
List Price: $40.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0470457961

Anatomy of Writing for Publication for Nurses
Saver, Cynthia L. RN, MS / Softcover / Sigma Theta Tau International / Pub Date 06/10 / ©2011 / Edition 01
ISBN: 1930538758
List Price: $34.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1930538758

No Time to Teach: The Essence of Patient and Family Education for Health Care Providers
London, Fran MS, RN / Softcover / Pritchett & Hull Association, Inc. / Pub Date 06/09 / ©2009 / Edition 02
ISBN: 1933638494
List Price: $22.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1933638494

NURSING RESEARCH

Statistics and Data Analysis for Nursing Research
Polit, Denise F. PhD / Softcover / Prentice Hall Health / Pub Date 08/09 / ©2010 / Edition 02
ISBN: 0135085071
List Price: $71.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0135085071

When Research Goes Off the Rails: Why It Happens and What You Can Do About It
Streiner, David L. / Hardcover / Guilford Publications Incorporated / Pub Date 10/09 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 1606234110
List Price: $60.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1606234110

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Current Issues in Nursing
Cowen, Perle Slavik PhD, RN / Softcover / Mosby / Pub Date 02/10 / ©2011 / Edition 08
ISBN: 0323065716
List Price: $62.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0323065716

Nutrition and Diet Therapy
Lutz, Carroll RN, MA / Softcover / Davis, F.A. / Pub Date 07/10 / ©2011 / Edition 05
ISBN: 0803622023
List Price: $61.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0803622023

PSYCHIATRIC-MENTAL HEALTH NURSING

Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders: Science and Practice
Clark, David A. / Hardcover / Guilford Publications Incorporated / Pub Date 10/09 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 160623434X
List Price: $65.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=160623434X

Dementia Beyond Drugs: Changing the Culture of Care
Power, G. Allen MD / Softcover / Health Professions Press / Pub Date 01/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 193252956X
List Price: $32.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=193252956X

Manual of Psychiatric Nursing Care Planning: Assessment Guides, Diagnoses, Psychopharmacology
Varcarolis, Elizabeth M. RN, MA / Softcover / Saunders, W. B. / Pub Date 02/10 / ©2011 / Edition 04
ISBN: 1437717829
List Price: $39.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=1437717829

PUBLIC INTEREST AND CREATIVE WORKS

Nursing, the Finest Art: An Illustrated History
Donahue, M. Patricia PhD, RN, FAAN / Hardcover / Mosby / Pub Date 05/10 / ©2011 / Edition 03
ISBN: 032305305X
List Price: $59.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=032305305X

Nursing in the Storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina
Danna, Denise RN / Softcover / Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated / Pub Date 12/09 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0826118372
List Price: $35.00*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0826118372

When Chicken Soup Isn’t Enough: Stories of Nurses Standing Up for Themselves, Their Patients, and Their Profession
Gordon, Suzanne / Hardcover / ILR Press / Pub Date 04/10 / ©2010 / Edition 01
ISBN: 0801448948
List Price: $24.95*
http://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=0801448948

Cheers and Boos!

Every week or so in our local paper, the editor has a “Cheers and Boos” column regarding things happening around the community. I thought I would try out the format for this blog entry.

Cheers for Mary Copley celebrating 25 years with Matthews, for me celebrating 15 years and for Heidi Currie celebrating 10 years. This is a great place to work and I am thankful that I have been able to spend the last ten years working from home.

Boo to me since it has been six months since my last blog.

Cheers for our upcoming November to Remember Sale! The sale offers a 20% discount off published titles from our stock publishers for the entire month of November. This includes Elsevier and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins! Order as much as you want the entire month. This is not limited to one order or one purchase order. Approval plans are included. Standing orders are excluded.

Cheers for all the publishers who helped sponsor our November to Remember Sale (I think it is obvious what my next “boo” would be).

Cheers to all our sales reps attending all the regional MLA shows. It is always a great time to see customers and let them know about all our new services.

A BIG cheer to Elsevier for making over 30 of their titles available through ebrary! If you would like the complete list, please contact me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com.

Boo to McGraw-Hill for pulling their content from all aggregators, including ebrary. They hope to sell everything direct. I would think it is important to make your content available through as many channels as possible, but that is just my opinion. For clarification, the McGraw-Hill content already available on ebrary will remain available.

Cheers to all our new developments with our ebook partner, ebrary. Along with having over 37,000 items available for purchase, we have 450 Brandon-Hill and DCT titles available through ebrary. They have also lowered their minimum annual hosting fee to $250. So, if you spend under $5,000, your hosting fee is only $250 annually. We also have a link to show all our new ebrary receipts. Just sign onto our website and the link is on the left. Contact me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com for more information on ebrary.

Cheers for the upcoming Charleston Conference November 3rd – 6th. I am looking forward to attending and finding out all the latest trends. I am sure Patron Driven Acquisitions will still be a hot topic.

Cheers for the “ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point” online conference. It was a very informative day of keynote speeches, panel discussions and it even had an exhibitor area. Also, during each presentation, you could send in questions. If they didn’t respond to your question during the presentation, they said they would follow-up within a week. I didn’t even have to leave my basement to attend! I hope there are more online conferences like this in the future.

Hope everyone will take advantage of our November to Remember 20% discount sale! Contact me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com if you have any questions.

Matthews is Going Green!

Like many companies throughout the United States, Matthews is making a very concerted effort to Go Green. Since Earth Day is April 22nd, I thought this would be a great opportunity to share what Matthews is doing and to ask for your help.

In 2005, we challenged all of our departments to figure out how they can reduce, re-use and recycle. We now have individual and community recycling bins. We recycle paper, aluminum cans, batteries, magazines/catalogs, cardboard and ink cartridges.

In addition, all of our company printers are configured to print on both sides of the page. Our Internal communications and forms are transmitted through our Intranet site and faxes are sent electronically from desktops. We are switching to online bill paying as well.

We have also worked on power reduction. This was done by switching to efficient fluorescent lights, purchasing a new conveyor belt for our warehouse and using digital thermometers. We have reduced our electricity usage by 23% over the past six years.

Our customers have also helped with our efforts by receiving via e-mail their order confirmations, invoices, status reports and statements. If you do receive your invoices with shipment, you might want to consider reducing the number of copies you receive. Also, if you receive library slips from us, we can send them via e-mail or an Excel file. If you would like to sign up for any of these paperless services, please contact me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com.

MLA is also encouraging all vendors to reduce the amount of paper handouts they distribute. Matthews has done this is the past by having our handouts available to download through a jump-drive. We also set up a special website where customers can print off any handouts once they get back to their office instead of carrying them around the show. We hope everyone will stop by our booth #419 in DC and see all the ways we are “Going Green!”

DON’T MISS OUR MARCH MADNESS SALE!

Our annual March Madness sale starts on Monday, March 1^st and lasts the entire month of March.  This sale offers a 20% discount on all published titles from our stock publisher list.  This is a great opportunity to save some money, especially with all the budget cuts libraries are facing these days.  If anyone needs me to pull a list of books in a particular subject area or a DCT purchase history report, please let me know.

We have also compiled our Average Price Report for 2009.  This list shows the average price of books, by NLM class for 2009.  We are expecting a 7% increase in the price of books for 2010, same as last year.  This is explained in the letter that accompanies the report.  We hope you will find this information useful for budgeting purposes. 

One more thing!  ebrary has lowered their minimum annual hosting fee from $500 to $250.  This is a great savings, especially for a smaller hospital library.  The hosting fee is basically the cost of a 2vl set.  So, if you own $5,000 or less of ebrary books, your annual hosting fee will be $250.  It is 5% of the sum of your purchases with a minimum fee of $250 and maximum fee of $1,500.  If you would like more information about the hosting fee or ebrary, please contact me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com.

What I Learned from the Charleston Conference 2009

It has been almost a month since I returned from the Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisitions (they probably need to change the name of the conference to “Issues in Metadata and Online Journals”). I thought it was a great conference and learned a lot, which I will try to disseminate in the following paragraphs…

The conference opened with David Lankes, Director, Information Institute of Syracuse, Syracuse University. His session was on “New Librarianship.” He stated that the best days of librarianship are ahead of us and that we are the right profession, uniquely positioned to lead in the knowledge age. However, we won’t get there following current trends. “We as a profession have become so focused on the trees of standards and process that we are now at risk from missing the larger forest of opportunities. We need new librarianship unencumbered by artifact-centrality. I put in my notes the quote “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” He asks “What should be the future of libraries and librarians in a democracy?” He states that knowledge is not an artifact, knowledge is an active process. Knowledge is created through conversation: conversants, language, agreements, memory. He says “The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.” We do this through Service, Leadership and Innovation. He ended with the quote “Change is like heaven. Everyone wants to get there but no one wants to go first.”

Each year, there seems to be a buzz word of something happening in the industry. This year, the buzz word of the conference was the whole concept of “just in time” ordering instead of “just in case.” Now, it is called a “Demand-Driven Acquisitions Model” or “User-Centered Acquisitions.” There were a few sessions on this topic and I was able to attend two of them.

One of them was “Use is King: User-Centered Acquisitions.” This presentation was given by Albert Joy and Peter Spitzform, both from the University of Vermont. They essentially said that with budget cuts, they needed to report expenditures with greater regularity and couldn’t justify things that weren’t questioned before. They posed the question “can we show what we buy today will be useful in the future?” They are buying books “just in case” and no one is using them. Previously, there were three assumptions to book buying: 1) Library collections exist in isolation, 2) There is a common search strategy, and 3) Monographic materials go quickly out of print. We know now those assumptions no longer hold true. Books that are born digital don’t go out of print. Many publishers are on their way to offer modern digital formats of front list titles.

In response to all this, in 2007 the University of Vermont developed a model where they load MARC records (provided by their vendor) into their ILS system. The MARC records also link out to Google Books for more information for the patron. There is an “Order on Demand” button next to the items. If a patron wants the book, they click the button and have for the patron within 4 days. They pay list price plus overnight shipping for these titles. They have estimated this model has saved them $50,000. One issue is that the librarians are also placing orders through this system for books they think the library needs. Overall, for the Univ of VT, Order On Demand provides a more dynamic way to provide material.

The other session I attended on the subject was “Rethinking Monographic Acquisition: Developing a Demand-Driven Purchase Model.” This session was given by Michael Levine-Clark from the University of Denver, Stephen Bosch from the University of Arizona and Kim Anderson and Matt Naumann from Blackwell. I was looking at my notes from this and the abstract from the program and I think the abstract can best sum up this session. It states “Librarians must reconsider how they collect monographs. Traditionally, academic libraries purchase as many books as possible to support their curricular and research needs, without much consideration of use. Even though 40% or more of books in most academic libraries never get used, this model makes sense in a world in which books go out of print, shelf space is available, and collections budgets are stable. But the world has changed: as publishers shift to an electronic publishing model, books will not go out of print; libraries are under pressure to convert shelf space to study space; and libraries have fewer and fewer funds to purchase books annually.” Does this sound familiar to any of you? The University of Denver developed a demand-driven acquisitions model with their book vendor, Blackwell Book Services. “Records for books that show up as forms on the approval plan will be loaded into the catalog, allowing users to discover them and purchase as needed. The library will pay Blackwell for profiling and metadata and will order books from the fastest and cheapest source.” (ouch). They do continue to receive some books on approval as well. “The University of Arizona’s development and past implementation of similar approaches to demand-driven business models including short term loans for e-books leading to purchase, demand-driven plans for streamed video content, as well as continuing demand-driven programs for e-books which is now extending into print monographs.”

So, this whole “just in time”/ “demand-driven purchase model” does not sound like we can expect an increase in sales for 2010. This session touched on how this will affect vendors. They stated that the problems faced by publishers will also apply to book vendors and that vendors will have to replace lost revenue. They also stated that vendors may be able to develop a better business model, such as charge an annual subscription price for these services and improve the supply chain. We are definitely going to look into how we can provide MARC records to those customers who want or have to move to a demand-driven purchase model.

The 9th Annual Health Sciences Lively Lunch presentation was given by Pat Thibodeau from Duke University and it was entitled “Transformational Change.” Pat discussed the many changes going on at her library and the challenges and impetus for change. She also states that there are opportunities for transformation. “Unfreeze behaviors, mind set; reset user expectations; no longer the Status Quo; realign with institutional priorities / user needs.” The Old Mantra was “Information access anywhere, anytime” and the New Mantra is “right content, to the right people, at the right time.” She also discussed the changes going on in Collection Development (electronic only, just-in-time, patron driven and data driven) Technical Services (stop or limit cataloging, focus on accessibility, focus on unique collections) and Space and Facilities (reduce or eliminate stacks, invite in others/share the facility, new uses for space). The lunch session ended with an open discussion on how other libraries are handling all these changes. That is what is so great about this conference. Everyone speaks freely about budgets, resources, vendors and publishers. One publisher even asked the audience if anyone still looks at the print catalog they publish every year. Everyone said “no.”

I attended a couple other sessions about approval plans. One was “Early Adopters, Early Adapters: Vendors and Libraries Create the Print and e-Book Approval Plan.” Libraries are moving to eBook approval plans because print materials are not circulating, eBook use increases monthly and they allow student access from different time zones 24/7. One of the items discussed is “why did this take so long when eBooks have been around for years and why now?” Bob Nardini of Coutts discusses that it has taken a while to do this because the acceptance of eBooks had to mature and they needed a customer who wanted to do it. The reason to do it now is “because we think our future in business depends on it” and “to learn how to do it. Just because you know how to do print doesn’t mean you know eBooks.” I know first hand, it is not easy. We have begun to integrate ebrary titles into our approval plans. It is a learning process and I am open to suggestions.

On the same subject of approval plans, I attended “Can Library Values be Outsourced?” Bibliographers from YBP, Coutts, Blackwell and Ingram discussed that they did think library values could be outsourced and that decisions made by bibliographers are not strictly commercial. I have always thought this since I am responsible for over 30 approval plans. I feel as if I am an extension of each library’s collection development department. This was the first session I ever attended where everyone on the panel had a job exactly like mine (another reason I love this conference). It was nice to know I am not alone and that all vendors value their customers and take the selections they make on their approval plans very seriously.

There were other sessions I attended and so many others I wanted to attend. One session I was not able to attend because it conflicted with something else was “Towards Resolving Chaos in the e-Book Supply Chain.” The abstract stated “Whether and how the ISBN should identify each different version of an e-book is becoming a contentious issue. There seems to be a huge mismatch between how publishers are identifying and describing e-books and what libraries actually require.” I think that is a huge problem. For example, for our WCP/PromptCat customers, if you purchase an eBook, what # do I transmit to OCLC? Do I send the eBook ISBN# or the ebrary identifier?

There was also a session that I thought was interesting because I had never heard of this before. It was “Start Worrying about the Theft of Shelf Books and Media.” The session discussed how people are stealing books, buying a “discard” stamp and selling the book online. Some thieves specialize in asking for unrecognized rare items through interlibrary loan. How horrible!

In summation, I feel as if I have a lot of work ahead of me this year. Vendors/Matthews will have to change their business model as libraries are changing. We will have to work with our customers to provide more than just books; metadata is important to provide too. Our role will not just be to sell books but to sell the discoverability of the items. At one session they said better metadata = more sales, and I think that is correct. If anyone is interested in starting a cooperative program using this demand driven purchasing model, please let me know. The quote from Alan Kay that Pat Thibodeau used at the Health Sciences Lively Lunch sums this conference up for me. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

October is National Medical Librarians Month

October is National Medical Librarians Month (NMLM) and on behalf of all the employee owners at Matthews, we would like to thank you for all you do. I have had the privilege over the past 14 years to work with just about every type of medical librarian. I deal with directors, serials librarians, collection development librarians, technical services librarians, reference librarians, electronic resources librarians, catalogers, hospital librarians and consumer health librarians. Each type of librarian serves a special purpose and need within the library and I enjoy helping them in any way I can. Keep up the good work!

Remember, next month is our “November to Remember” special where we offer a 20% discount on all published titles from our stock publishers. Save up those orders and save big next month! Let me know if you need any lists run. Contact me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com  or 800-633-2665 x374.

I’ll be attending the Charleston Conference in a couple weeks (Nov 4-6). I am looking forward to hearing what the hot topics are this year. I will report back what I learn on my next blog.

I thought I would end with a great quote a customer of mine has at the end of her e-mails:

“The Library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.” Carl Sagan

Budgets got you down? Matthews can help!

One of the most common things I heard at MLA this year was, “We’ve had some major cuts to our book budget. Are you hearing this from other libraries too?” The answer is, “Yes.” There are some libraries that have the same budget or have an actual increase, but for the most part, library book budgets have been cut.

Just because you don’t have as much money as you have had in the past doesn’t mean that Matthews won’t work just as hard for you. Here are some suggestions to help you through these tough economic times:

1. Take advantage of our March and November 20% off published titles from our stock publisher lists. If the requests/orders can wait, save them up to take advantage of our specials. You can save your orders on our website bookshelf feature and add to a shopping cart whenever you are ready to order.

2. Set up a deposit account with us. Many times, we can offer higher discounts if you can deposit part or all of you book budget with us. We will send monthly statements so you can keep track of your money.

3. Is all your money going to electronic resources now? If so, buy your ebooks from us. We have a partnership with ebrary and you can buy their perpetual access titles or subscription collections from us.

4. Need help pulling a list together for grant money received? We can help with that too. Tell us what type of books are needed for the grant and we will pull a list together. We can also make sure they are billed separately from your other orders.

5. Have you had to cancel all or many of your standing orders? Just because you can’t have the books shipped automatically anymore does not mean that you cannot receive notification when these titles become available. We can mail slips or send e-mails when new editions or volumes become available for items that you previously received automatically. You can receive slips on some items and books on others. We are flexible.

6. Have you seen an offer from a competitor or publisher that is too good to pass up? Don’t be afraid to ask if we will match it.

7. Matthews is a participating vendor with the WorldCat Cataloging Partner (WCP) program. This service is meant to reduce the cost of cataloging for libraries. WCP will deliver OCLC MARC records that match the titles you order from us and set your holdings in WorldCat. This can save staff time and money.

8. Watch for our MLA specials. This year we ran a special giving 20% off Lippincott Williams & Wilkins titles from May 18th – August 14th. Today is the last day of the special. I hope everyone was able to take advantage of it!

9. Sign up for our library e-mails. This is the best way to stay informed of any specials or news from the library division.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you want any additional information on these suggestions, ashleyw@mattmccoy.com or 800-633-2665 x374.

Q & A Session with Editor-in-Chief of Doody’s Core Titles, Anne Hennessy

Q: Anne, thanks so much for taking the time to answer some questions about the 2009 edition of the DCT. I really appreciate it. This is the sixth year of Doody’s Core Titles in the Health Sciences (DCT), and it is the same price as it was in 2004. How is that possible in this day and age?

A: As you know, Ashley, we’ve been serving the health sciences library market for over 16 years and we’re acutely aware of the budget constraints librarians work under. As a result, we’ve instituted very few price increases for our products for librarians over the years, and only when absolutely necessary. Doody’s Review Service, which we’ve been publishing since 1995, has seen only two price increases, although we’ve made many important additions and improvements to it during that time. Doody’s Core Titles is already in its sixth year and has been vastly improved since its inception, but we thought it important, especially in these uncertain economic times, to keep the price down.

Q: I know there are some new features to the DCT this year and I’d like to go over each. The first new feature as listed on your marketing information is “eBook links—we provide links directly to eBook aggregators that carry online versions of titles on the list.” This is a really great feature. Which aggregators have partnered with you to provide this feature? Also, I believe I heard that this feature is also available on your Doody’s Review Service, which covers a lot more titles. Essentially, you have the closest thing to a “Books in Print” of health science eBooks on the market, correct?

A: Your blog after the Charleston Conference suggesting the need for a “Books in Print” for eBooks got us thinking. Adding links to eBook aggregators is something we knew we needed to do as more and more library budgets were shifting from print to digital resources.

Currently, we are working with six eBook aggregators: ebrary, Books@Ovid, MDConsult/Nursing Consult, NetLibrary, R2 Digital Library and STAT!Ref. In a view of a list of titles, a link will appear at the bottom of any title with an available digital version. Clicking on that link will bring up the full record for that title, and links to all of the aggregators who supply an e-version. We fully expect to add more eBook aggregators in the coming months.

So, yes, I guess you’re right – Doody’s Review Service, which provides access to our entire database of reviews and data on health sciences titles, is the closest thing to a “Books in Print” for health sciences eBooks! In fact, we now believe Doody’s Core Titles and Doody’s Review Service are the only e-book locator sources on the market.

Q: The next new feature of the DCT 2009 is “BH icon – we’ve added an icon to DCT title records to let you know that a version of the title appeared on the final Brandon/Hill lists of 2003-2004.” Have you had a lot of requests from librarians for this service?

A: Librarians had relied on the Brandon/Hill lists for almost 40 years, and rightly so. As a result, distributors, like Matthews, have continued to indicate Brandon/Hill titles and new editions of those titles in their catalog. It’s only natural that librarians would continue to want to know whether an earlier version of a title appeared on the final Brandon/Hill lists. We were guided in our decision to include this feature both by our own market research and by our Library Board of Advisors.

Q: As a follow-up question to the BH icon feature, will DCT 2009 users be able to do any sort of sorting by Brandon-Hill icon?

A: DCT 2009 will not have a sort feature for Brandon/Hill titles, but the icon is prominently displayed in the title record. However, users will be able to search and filter the list to make it most useful to them – by specialty, titles new to the list, price, score, availability as an eBook from all aggregators or just one, to name a few. DCT 2009 also makes it easy for users to print or export their custom lists to a spreadsheet.

Q: The last new feature is the “Monthly newsletter – we alert you to new eBooks and new editions of DCT titles, as well as valuable industry news.” Regarding the “new eBook” alert, this means that when a print title becomes available as an eBook, the DCT user will receive notification? I am assuming this is because publishers don’t always make the e-version of the book available at the same time as the print? Will you send notification when each aggregator makes it available, in case they don’t all do it at the same time?

Also, you state that you will alert the DCT user when new editions of DCT titles are available. Will these new editions also be scored or will you reference the score of the previous edition?

A: A monthly newsletter is a natural addition to DCT. Although the list is published just once a year, we know librarians want to keep abreast of all of the publishing activity that goes on throughout the year. We thought this was a good way to alert librarians when an eBook version of a title becomes available, which may happen at any time after print publication. Since we’re representing a number of aggregators, we’ll report whenever any of the aggregators makes an e-version available.

It’s also important for librarians to know when a new edition of DCT title is published. For example, we already know that titles preliminarily selected for DCT 2009 have new editions pending late in the year. When and if a new edition is published, we’ll report on it in the newsletter. However, the new edition does not automatically replace the edition selected for the list. Each title, or edition, is selected and scored on its own merits by the librarian selectors.

Situated as we are at the nexus of librarians, publishers, distributors, and expert reviewers, we have a unique view of this corner of the world, so an important part of the monthly newsletter will be an article on a hot topic of interest to health sciences librarians.

Q: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about DCT 2009 or Doody’s Review Service?

A: Both Doody’s Core Titles 2009 and Doody’s Review Service are the result of close collaboration with our customers, the librarians who rely on our services for their collection development needs. We like to characterize these collection development tools as developed for librarians by librarians.

To meet the varied needs and budgets of librarians, Doody’s Core Titles is offered in two versions – Basic and Premium. Both versions have the new features we’ve talked about here and both are easy to access, sort, print and export. The Premium version includes reviews of any titles on the list from Doody’s Review Service, which in previous editions has meant that over half of the 2,000+ Doody’s Core Titles include expert reviews. Premium also includes easy links to Google Book Search where available. According to the Journal of the Medical Library Association, “Electronic Resources Review,” July 2005: “Doody’s Core Titles is a very useful collection management tool — well worth the reasonable price.”

Doody’s Review Service is our comprehensive collection development tool, with access to our database of 100,000+ titles and 25,000+ reviews, which incorporates the latest edition of Doody’s Core Titles and includes a weekly email update with new reviews, new titles and new eBooks. The print predecessor to Doody’s Review Service, Doody’s Health Sciences Book Review Journal, was endorsed by the Medical Library Association as “a valuable collection development and reference tool.”

We have been gratified by the response to both of these products by members of the health sciences library community and we will continue to innovate and improve with their help.

***
I want to thank Anne Hennessy again for taking the time to answer my questions. The 2009 DCT will be available on May 15th, 2009. Please e-mail me at ashleyw@mattmccoy.com if you would like to place an order!

Guilt by MLAssociation

MLA is in Honolulu, Hawaii this year and I get to go! Isn’t it exciting?! Well then, why do I feel so guilty for being able to go? I didn’t pick the location. Any time I talk to anyone at my work who isn’t going, I feel as though they think I’m going on vacation on the company’s dime and I’m not going to do a lick of work.

I get the feeling that some librarians were immediately turned down when they submitted their travel request just because it is in Hawaii. Everyone assumes it is going to be so expensive. The hotel is cheaper than Chicago was last year! The airfare is more but maybe only a couple hundred more than if you fly from Indianapolis to San Francisco. If you take the price difference between the Hawaii hotel and the Chicago hotel, you have your couple hundred dollars. Plus, there are some really good deals to be found.

We are “going green” with our booth again this year. One way we want to do this is by making sure we don’t bring too many handouts and giveaways. So, I e-mailed the MLA Show Management to see if they had any numbers yet of attendees. They said “MLA is down 35% from MLA ’08, which is not bad given the weak economy and low registrations for other meetings in the US. We anticipate reaching numbers ranging between 800 and 1,000.” Not too shabby. I’d travel 5,000 miles for that.

I love going to MLA. I love to see my customers and catch up and meet the people I’ve only spoken to on the phone. I love to tell everyone about all the new things going on in the library division and to get a lead for a potential new customer. When I’m not in the booth, I like to attend the plenary and poster sessions. I like to walk around the exhibit hall and see all the familiar faces from past meetings. I like having coffee with my colleagues and dinner with my customers. I like hanging out with the people I work with in the booth and discuss things we’d like to do for the library division in the future. If it means I have to go to Hawaii to do all this, well I guess I will have to make that sacrifice.

See you at MLA. Please stop by our booth #811 and say “Aloha!”