Getting books into readers' hands in a timely fashion has been a problem in 2003-2004--the enormous influx of funds that the Community College Investment Program generated for two-year college libraries caused the University's book jobber Coutts to neglect the orders placed at senior colleges, who were giving the company much less business. Even though Brooklyn's book budget was a fraction of its former self, we did order books and we experienced long delays in receiving them. It was equally disconcerting when the vendor sent books to the wrong libraries and made many processing errors (the result of haste and carelessness) by failing to follow the directions contained in individual library's profiles. The complaints of the senior colleges have been registered and Coutts has promised to mend its ways; the CUNY contract is a valuable one which this company does not want to lose.
At the same time, on the horizon are some intriguing new services designed to speed materials to our faculty and students, services we are eager to try when the surface of the waters is smooth once more. One service would (ostensibly) deliver standing orders more quickly than the vendor we now use for these titles, while also tracking missing volumes and altered publication dates. Another product, Slipstream, would permit us to establish a detailed subject profile with Coutts, allowing the vendor to notify us electronically of new titles we might like to buy.