From: Karin Wikoff <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2014 08:34:56 -0500

Amazon is one of our top 3 sources for hard copy books, along with YBP
and a local jobber, Busca.  When Amazon works, it works well, has
great discounts and amazing breadth in their offerings.  However, when
there is a problem, no one is worse for getting the problem solved.  I
have had it take literally more than a year to resolve a tax issue,
where they mistakenly charged us tax on an item when we are
non-profit.  For a short while, Amazon had a program for "corporate"
(i.e. non-private-individual) customers.  We had our own dedicated
customer rep, a plan where if we spent more in the current year than
the previous year we got bigger discounts, etc.  That really helped a
lot and was the first and only sign that Amazon really had any
interest in their library customers at all.  Then they cancelled the
program very suddenly with no communication to the customers that they
had.  (That was part of why it took a year to get our credit card
problem resolved -- I kept trying to get in touch with our rep and he
kept not responding.  I finally tracked him down and it turned out he
was working in a totally other department of Amazon.  He was the first
one to tell me they had done away with corporate accounts for months).

If we could get away from using Amazon, we'd be delighted.  But for
now, their stock and prices are so good that often we just have to buy
from them.  Even though we know that if and when we have any problems,
it will be a major effort and a lot of time to get it fixed.

We do not buy e-books from Amazon (I shudder to think of the
hoop-jumping to get an appropriate license for a college).  We buy
mostly ebrary titles via YBP's GOBI service, but we also buy Oxford,
Gale, and other publisher's titles through YBP, so long as they are
deliverable on the ebrary, EBSCO, GVRL or Oxford Ref platforms.  We do
not currently support any other e-book platforms.

If that helps.

Karin

Karin Wikoff
Electronic and Technical Services Librarian
Ithaca College Library
953 Danby Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850

Phone: 1-607-274-1364
Fax: 1-607-274-1539
Email: [log in to unmask]


On 2/2/2014 6:22 PM, LIBLICENSE wrote:

From: Amy Schuler <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:21:49 -0500

Hello,
I buy nearly all of my library books from Amazon, with the exceptions
of: a small handful of books direct from publishers (when there are
conference discounts), and my local bookstore (rare).  I also license
a couple of small ebook collections from publishers, for whatever that
is worth...

Context: my library is a very small independent research library
serving a staff of >125 people, give or take (less in reality, since
some of the staff are admin support who do not typically use library
resources).  Our primary interests are scientific databases and
journals so that is where I spend the overwhelming majority of my
budget.  I maintain a tiny book budget, that I use to buy about 150
books/year, on average.  Amazon works great for me.  Some of these I
buy used through Amazon Marketplace, which is excellent!

Hope this is useful,

Amy Schuler
Director, Library & Information Services
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Millbrook, NY
http://www.caryinstitute.org



On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 9:04 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 20:36:10 -0500

Judy Luther and I have been studying this.  We would welcome any
information on this topic anyone can provide, on-list or off.

Thank you.

Joe Esposito


On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 7:43 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

How many libraries are now ordering books via Amazon, any idea? Print?
 Electronic?