One publisher sent a copy of my letter to his circulation person to ensure that we would start receiving the paper. The circulation person sent it on to shipping. No one in shipping read English. After several months I wrote again, and they tracked down the problem. Another shipping department understood that we wanted the paper for filming but were convinced that we did want any extraneous material.
Mail delivery is often a problem.
We have very few titles where we consistently receive a complete file. We spend a considerable amount of time claiming issues from the publisher and attempting to borrow copies from our colleagues in this country. For some of the rarer titles, there are very few institutions who still subscribe to the hard copy, making our search more difficult. In short many of these less prominent titles bring in fewer subscribers but require more staff time to manage. In order to continue and expand its microfilming program for foreign newspapers, the Center, like most other institutions these days, will need to pay more attention to marketing and cost recovery.