[Michlib-l] Shipping Delays: Jim F. Input

[Jim Flury]

All, 

Thank you for bringing the shipping delays issue, particularly when it comes to Baker & Taylor, to my attention. I asked Mike Gooding to follow up with the impacted libraries. You should always feel free to contact any of our sales reps directly, as they are there to help. 

In addition to the comments I shared to the list from our three vendor reps, I thought I would add my own. As when you read anything that originates with me, you should always keep in mind my "Jack of very few trades and master of none" perspective. 

Cue soapbox: 

Has anyone ever had the privilege to visit the warehouse/production facilities of any of our partner vendors? I have, and they are fascinating places to behold. They are busy, fast moving, and on the processing production lines, places where people work somewhat closely together. Therein lies the problem. While automation has transformed many production jobs, the processing of library materials is still very much a task performed by humans. All it takes to throw a monkey wrench into the production process is one positive test. That triggers quarantine, shut down (either partial or full), disinfection of the facility, and then re-start. Multiply that by a few incidents like this, and you have a recipe for huge delays. B&T seems to have been impacted by this more than our other partner vendors. I don't know why, but part of the reason may be that B&T does more library related business than the other two vendors combined. In addition, consider that libraries were all but shut down for one quarter of 2020. When libraries began to reopen, this meant the placement of lots and lots of orders at the same time, which was a disruption to the order process these companies are used to seeing, which varies seasonally. It is very possible the companies were not prepared for this. Finally, it is possible these companies are having difficulty recruiting and retaining workers. We have all read stories in our various media sources as to how despite the high unemployment rate, many companies are having difficulty attracting employees. 

To summarize, it is not my intent to carry the water for our partner vendors. I will praise these companies when they do a good job, and criticize them when they don't. I also don't have much insight and little to no "insider knowledge" when it comes to exactly what these companies have been up against for the past 12 months. In this case, however I do believe that they have done and continue to do the best job they can under some very difficult circumstances. All of these vendors exist to service libraries, after all, so it is in their business interests to do so. All of us, our partner vendors included, look forward to a return to some semblance of normal in 2021. 

End soapbox. 

Jim Flury 

Jim Flury 
Technical Services Manager 
The Library Network 
41365 Vincenti Court 
Novi, MI 48375 
248-536-3100, ext 133 
Fax 248-536-3098 
jflury at tln.lib.mi.us 

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