Librarians and publishers: Partners

Scientific journals and libraries such as the Engineering Societies Library are truly working partners in the world of information, but expanded communications between the librarians and the editors of the journals can pay off, with considerable benefits accruing to both parties. Librarians should stop complaining to each other about the headaches to be encountered with journals and let the editors know, for example, that perforated pages ate anathema to them. Publishers and editors, on the other hand, can help libraries and information centers by, as a case in point, clearly indicating on the journal any irregularity, be it in numbering or periodicity. Librarians are fully aware of and sympathetic toward the monetary problems of journals because libraries have the same problems. As the librarian, with an essentially unchanged budget, examines a subscription agents' invoice that is up at least 20 percent, it hurts to have to decide what journals will be dropped.