Review: Elsevier’s User Services
Cliff May 9th, 2008
Greetings,
I am writing this email to complain about the horrible user services that are provided by Elsevier.
This morning I was trying to confirm full-text access to the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology for my library’s users. When I contacted customer support, I was told that access is only provided via a username and password (and not by IP ranges).
This means that when users at my library access AJOG via our full-text index or the publisher’s website, they are confronted with a request for a username and password. I have no way to provide the user with that information from the time they begin their research to the time they get to the username/password prompt. So not only are they not given the username and password, they are also not informed of the correct person to contact at our library to get this information, and in fact will most likely give up their research at this point.
This is a shameful display of disregard for your own customers–the library’s users. You are making it difficult for your customers to access the very resources you provide. I strongly suggest working collaboratively with libraries and other vendors to provide your customers (again, the library’s users, not the libraries or librarians!) with the best experience possible, including quick and easy access to resources.
I expect a swift reply, and hopefully, a user-centered solution in the very near future.
Thanks,
Cliff










