The quotation system followed by some of the libraries seems to be good. At the same time, it also shows that books in some of the specialised area are over priced. Let us assume that a new book, procured through quotation system, get a discount of 30% discount. The overheads, postage and book sellers discount, etc, will come to another 15% ( plus or minus 3% ). Ultimately it is evident that publishers are deliberately overpricing the books, keeping maximum margins to help the wholesalers/retailers. This is a marketing strategy followed by many in the world of business. The quotation system has failed in some of the reputed libraries for various reasons. I very much appreciate such librarians to come forward to explain the reasons. Therefore, another option to solve the problem is to put pressure on the publishers to reduce the catalogue price. Who will do? Can we look at our library associations to take up such matters with publishers? Can these associations also announce a discount rate which can be consistently followed by all the libraries? Euro money, for example does not offer any discount or has a fixed discount. They blacklist such agents who do not stick on their trade policy. g.k.manjunath IGIDR, MUMBAI On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, uma jaganath wrote:
J R D Tata Memorial Library, at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore is also following the same procedure as NCL by sending the list of books published by foreign publishers that we want to procure asking them to quote the rate of discount and also the possible time of delivery. Whoever gives the highest discount (it ranges from 21% to 34%) , orders will be placed with those vendors. And also the vendors delivers the book with the price proof and we also verify the price by visiting publishers' websites and we are paying them Bank Rate (SBI) prevailing on the date of billing. By this procedure, our library is saving quite a good amount by way of discount, which we are using to update our Reference collection.
Dr. Uma Jagannath Deputy Librarian J R D Tata Memorial Library Indian Institute of Science Bangalore 560012
Tel.No. 22932868
E-Mail: uma@library.iisc.ernet.in
On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Krishnan wrote:
One option that we have been using is to send the list of books that we want to few vendors and ask them to indicate the best possible discount and the time period of delivery. Our terms - payment against bill (no advance payment), bank rate on the date of the bill. We have been able to get discounts ranging from 20% to 30%
Dr. S. Krishnan NCL
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