ASA Guidelines
The Association's members exist to achieve the highest standards of service for both customers and publishers, and to improve relationships and terms with publishers. The Association aims to foster the use of a 'best practice' approach to customer and publisher service and to represent members' common interests to publishers, customers, representative and governmental organisations and associations. It is recognised that members are in fair and friendly competition with each other.
Services for Customers
- Provide an overall quality of service in line with generally accepted standards and/or recognised best practice procedures
- Maintain accurate and easily accessible records
- Maintain up-to-date journal and price information, backed up by a comprehensive collection of reference material for tracing out-of-the-way titles. Provide a single source of information on serials consistent with the needs of customers
- Keep information on the availability and prices of electronic journals and provide advice on their licensing and access as required
- Be able to handle some or all of the following material: back issues, microforms, electronic and other new media
- Produce price lists, newsletters, or bulletins and provide price quotations
- Provide clear, detailed invoices observing the customer's special requirements
- Process and order efficiently new subscriptions from the many thousands of possible suppliers
- Renew subscriptions in good time thereby avoiding breaks in the supply of serials
- Handle subscriptions on both an annual and an 'until forbidden' basis
- Respond effectively to claims for missing issues and other queries. Provide advance information about delays in publication, title changes, etc.
- Build good personal relationships with the librarian and staff and handle all dealings with customers in a professional and courteous manner
- Establish good relationships with publishers and become familiar with their procedures
- Aid customers as much as possible with their budgeting and finance management
- Provide management reports and/or advice in order to help the librarian to manage the collection
- Support and encourage the use of automation by customers
- Represent all publishers' material honestly.
Services for Publishers
- Work closely with all publishers to improve services, save costs and increase sales
- To enter and maintain subscriptions for institutional and/or personal customers; wherever possible to ascertain the bona fide nature of personal subscriptions and to guarantee that they are not intended for institutional use, and to ensure that such subscriptions conform to individual publishers' criteria
- Help automate the renewal procedure so as to reduce administration for both agent and publisher wherever practicable and economic to do so
- Pay the publisher in the appropriate currency and at the appropriate rate as declared in publishers' price lists or such other agreement as shall exist between Members and publishers
- Provide the full address of institutional end users by agreement
- Provide publishers with appropriate information on customers so as to enable the publisher both to deliver postal copies and make electronic journals available to the customer.
