[ILL-L] jump in cost of purchase of ProQuest dissertation express

[Beth Kucera]

Ever since Dissertation Express/ProQuest updated their web site, our 
interlibrary loan office has encountered numerous issues with them 
(never mind that it seems much slower to search for titles).

Some time in the beginning of the year they increased the cost of print 
dissertations from $29.00 to $30.00. Not a huge increase, but we never 
received notification that the price was going up.

We also stumbled across the fact that you can purchase pdf copies of the 
dissertations. Again, no notice and really no great advertising on their 
web site.

The thing that has me concerned is that we have been receiving invoices 
for the pdf purchases. The only way to buy them on the Dissertation 
Express site is with a credit card, as they do not accept a library 
account for this format. I have called them about the invoices and 
indicated that we have already paid with our credit card. They were 
going to look into it and never replied back. For now I am going to 
ignore the invoices because the charges are appearing on our credit card 
statements.

Dissertation Express provides a great service and our faculty and 
students are very happy with the product. But DE/ProQuest really need to 
work out the kinks.

Regards,
Beth Kucera
ILL Staff

InterLibrary Loan- Borrowing (GZN)
University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Libraries
2311 East Hartford Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53211
414.229.4493 - phone
414.229.4380 - fax
bweixler at uwm.edu

Mantell, Jody wrote:
> And I just tried deleting the cookies as mentioned earlier...and that
> worked--strange! Jody Mantell/ILL Supervisor/UHC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
> [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Mantell, Jody
> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1:32 PM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: RE: [ILL-L] jump in cost of purchase of ProQuest dissertation
> express
>
> I actually  have a call into them regarding this issue.  I spoke to
> someone yesterday who said I needed to speak to someone else who wasn't
> there yesterday, but she thought I was still supposed to be receiving
> our discounted price through our Dissertation Express account.  I'll let
> you know what I find out or if you want to call you can try as
> well--1-800-521-0600 and ext 2242.
>
> Jody Mantell/ILL Supervisor
> UHC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
> [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Richard Samford
> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 9:20 AM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: Re: [ILL-L] jump in cost of purchase of ProQuest dissertation
> express
>
> Michelle Parry wrote:
>   
>> Just a heads up for those libraries who may purchase some 
>> dissertations via Dissertation Express. A print copy has increased 
>> from $30.00 to $43.00 and PDF copy is $36.00.  Also, no longer any 
>> discount for libraries. We're getting charged the same amount as an 
>> individual making a purchase.
>>
>> Michelle
>>
>>     
>     Michelle ~
>
>     That would be something to ask them about.  A quick look at their 
> site lead me to this page: 
> http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/dexplib.shtml where
>
> it says $30 for academic libs.  Copyright 2009, but no indication of 
> when the page was last edited. If they've raised their rates, they're 
> hiding it pretty well.
>
> Rich
>
>