Re: Spider Activity Reports from Blackwell Synergy

[Andrew Waller <waller@ucalgary.ca>]

We're starting to see more of these messages, not only from 
Blackwell, though most seem to be coming from Blackwell.  In most 
cases, we find that it does tie back to some sort of systematic 
downloading and we duly investigate.  However, the increased 
number from Blackwell makes me wonder if their thresholds are a 
little low across the board?  As we all know, patrons /really 
like/ electronic products and are using them more and more, 
without crossing into abuse (normally); I think the thresholds of 
some publishers do not recognize these levels of use.  We had one 
situation where this was the case; what the publisher thought was 
"regular use" for an institution of our size was below what the 
real level of use was (the publisher raised their thresholds 
accordingly).

Andrew Waller
Serials Librarian
Collections Services
University of Calgary Library
waller@ucalgary.ca