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With its fabulous cultural, ethnic, linguistic, diversities and its formidable sprawl across 3,287,263 square kilometers, India is ofttimes called a subcontinent. It produces every year over 6,000 journals/periodicals and continuations titles in ENGLISH language alone, besides a pre-ponderance of vernacular publications. And surprisingly, in India, (unlike in the Western countries), we have as vast a numerosity of publishers as that of our periodicals/journals -- because about 85% of the indigenous publishers (including societies, research institutions, university departments and other academic bodies) bring out just one periodical each. Your quest, therefore, for a periodical, specially from a publisher in a remote, far-flung Indian town, could often be an onerous -- if not a frustrating -- experience. Here -- in a typical situation like this -- surfaces our essential role, because we, at DK, with our amazing resourcefulness, can locate any title, from even the unnoticed, inaccessible publishers. Search Mechanisms & Catalogue Record : continual efforts to update the current database and to search for newly introduced titles.
Subscriptions : a highly specialized supply service.
Back-volumes : huge stock to fill gaps in your holdings and making complete ranges available.
Continuations : regular or irregular, numbered or unnumbered -- monographs, series, conferences and the like on a standing order basis.
SEARCH MECHANISMS & CATALOGUE RECORD:
Besides our contacts with publishers and originating institutions all over the subcontinent, we are always on our toes, tracking down the new titles that are being introduced. Our research staff keeps rummaging -- in quest of fresh information -- book-trade literature, publishers' catalogues, bulletins/reports/newsletters of academic and research institutions, and new issues of the national bibliography; besides the review columns of about 50 national/regional newspapers and over 1500 periodicals: bibliographical, technical and popular.
With our standing-order arrangements for continuations of every kind, we succeed in locating/identifying all new volumes that are being published. Simultaneously updating our current database, we generate new catalogue records for the Recently Introduced Indian Periodicals, showing the correct current title, place of publication, sponsor's/publisher's name, frequency, year of commencement (whenever available), and other details. Among our Catalogues also figure notably the Subscribers' Guide to Indian Periodicals/Serials: for current periodical subscriptions; and Back Files of Indian Periodicals and Serials: the subject-wise lists, incorporating the essential information about different volumes and their prices.
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
Day after day, for three decades now, we have offered unblemished, meaningful Subscription Services to myriad overseas customers, helping them procure with speed and the highest measure of certainty, countless Indian periodicals/serials: both regular and irregular, on all subject areas under science and technology, social sciences, and humanities. Our Subscription Services are today rated as the best in India.
Just for your asking, we would reach you any periodical/serial, in any language (English, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Hindi and other vernaculars), published anywhere in the Indian subcontinent. And, significantly, on automatic-renewal (or till-forbidden) basis or any basis that you decide.
Making Your Job Easier : If you, as a librarian or as an individual subscriber, were to deal directly with any of the 5,000 odd publishers for fresh subscriptions or their renewals, you would certainly like to consider, besides the immensity of the ordeal, the economics of your subscriptions, visualizing the high costs involved (1) in placing separate orders on different publishers, (2) in processing scores of invoices, (3) by way of bank charges for your various remittances, and (4) in the follow-up correspondence, resulting from the delay/non-receipt of certain issues. But once, on the other hand, you entrust us with your requirements, your entire job is confined to "One Order -- One Invoice -- One Payment -- One Claim" .. leaving all else to our care!
Your subscriptions, through DK, thus mean riddance of clerical work -- enabling you, consequently, to expand the buying power of your acquisition budget.
Your Subscriptions Attain Certainty :We are genuinely mindful that you do get hold of the periodicals/serials, which you subscribe through us. And in this regard, we stand out distinctly from other subscription agencies in India.
Having all these years aimed at giving our clients the highest level of customer services -- which occasionally have transcended our commercial interests too, we (unlike others of our kind) --- first procure all the periodicals ourselves ;
- thoroughly check all the issues to identify the missing numbers, physical deformities and other discrepancies, if any;
- re-pack them all with such scrupulous care as ensures their greatestin-transit safety; and, finally
- mail them, on weekly basis, by registered post which, obviously, minimises losses in their long journeys across the continents.
How We Cope with Subscribers' Problems :Ours is a distinctly pragmatic approach to the management of periodical subscriptions and their inevitably attendant problems. Presenting synoptically the at once practical aspects of our Subscription Services, the following paragraphs would show you how we have minimised, if not totally eliminated, customers' problems -- fastening very few demands upon their time and convenience.
Standing Order Subscription Service : On your 'standing order', we manage year-to-year, automatic renewal of your subscriptions (through us) -- till you forbid us. Your 'standing order' subscriptions ensure continuous service of the subscribed periodicals -- because, in these cases, we place orders with the respective publishers well in advance, without having to wait for your formal advice/instructions.
Renewals : If you seek a yearly renewal of your subscription -- without placing a "standing order" with us, we would expect your formal advice in this regard, before the end of September every year, because most Indian publishers take two to three months to register subscription renewals.Order Placement: New Subscriptions Advisably, your order for a periodical/journal should cover its full 12-month subscription or its one complete volume. Subscriptions to daily newspapers or weekly magazines, however, can commence from any date.
New subscriptions may be added to your existing holdings at any time. But to effect a common expiry date for each library's subscriptions (for the sake of convenience), we may initially subscribe for a prorata part of the yearly fee, depending on the starting date indicated.
Please supply us the following order details:- Publication title and subscription quantity ;
- When the subscription is to start ;
- Whether this is a 'New' subscription or a 'Renewal' ;
- Subscription delivery address and billing address ;
- Mode of delivery ; and
- Whether the subscription is to be renewed automatically or isfor one year only.
We regularly bring out the "Subscribers Guide to Indian Periodicals/Serials" for use by our customers.Invoicing and Price Changes :Fresh orders for the 'regulars' or for the newly introduced 'regular' periodicals are forthwith recorded with the publishers, and a corresponding invoice is made for the customer.However, for all the 'irregulars'; invoices are raised only after the receipt of notifications and proper invoices from the publishers.
We make all renewal invoices only twice a year -- following a set schedule. We prepare bills (for the following subscription year)in September/October for the regularly published periodicals, and then again, (if the need be), in May or even later for the identified "irregular" or "slow publication" periodicals.
In the event of any revision in subscription rates, we are obliged to bill you for the difference on a supplementary invoice. We resort to this -- perhaps a highly disagreeable thing to most subscribers -- only when it becomes absolutely necessary, and that too after the publishers have convinced us of the unavoidability of increases in rates.
Despatches : While sending you the subscribed journal/periodical, on weekly basis, by surface or air mail -- as you desire, we (unlike others) never fold/roll the publication to economize on postage and packing material. We, in fact, deliver you neat, creaseless, unmutilated copies as issued by the publishers. All our consignments are accompanied by 'Packing Vouchers' that give full details of the issues included therein.Supplement Materials : You are assured of the relevant supplemental material: title and contents pages, indexes and the like, if it is ever issued by the publishers. Supplemental material of a subscribed periodical/journal is usually cost-free.
Additional Materials : Occasionally a journal/periodical brings out additional issue(s)/material on an 'additional' price, (i.e., on a price not covered by its annual subscription charges). Presuming that you, as a subscriber, would not like to miss it, we (on our own) consider this additional material as a vital part of your order, arrange its speedy despatch to you, and bill you for the additional charges separately.
Claims : If we (like other agencies) were to arrange 'direct supplies' of your subscribed periodicals from the publishers, and if the problem of raising claims were also to be your business, it would take you as long as four to six months to spot (if at all) a missing issue, leave alone the money and effort you would invest in unnecessary and much vexing correspondence to recover it.
With the kind of services we give, there are the barest minimal chances of your subscribed periodical going astray in its transit --because we send all material to the subscriber by 'Registered Post'and that too after we ourselves have procured, checked and repacked it. Yet if you detect a missing issue, we would like you to get in touch not with the publisher, but directly with us -- and desirably within 30 days -- enabling us to raise claims for it (the missing issue) ourselves. We make sure to get you the replacement (without any additional charges from you) -- though occasionally we ourselves have to bear additional expenses to buy the missing issues for you; barring in the very few cases, where the publishers run out their entire stock. Importantly, however, we expect you to check if the journal/periodical is behind schedule, and also if you have allowed sufficient time for the issue(s) to reach its/their destination.
When you write to us about the missing issues, you must mention their numbers/months of publication (for our identification) -- together with a few other details, like your name, address and subscription order number. In turn, we write back to you promptly, telling you the latest status of each missing/non-delivered issue: whether it is not-yet-published, whether it is behind in publication, whether it is in transit, and whether it is missing and whether (consequently) a claim in this regard has already been raised/is being raised on your behalf.
Cancellations & Refunds : Requests for cancellation of subscriptions before the expiry date are often resisted by publishers. But keen, as we are, to spare our customers of the possible losses, we use both our effort and influence to realize the refunds due to our subscribers.
Cancellation, however,must be made in writing, at least 90 days in advance of the date of desired cancellation.
Credits for the cancelled titles can be given to the customer after the publisher refunds the money for the cancelled item to DK.
Discontinued Publications : If a journal/periodical ceases publication or merges with another publication during the course of a subscription year, we inform the customer immediately -- though, simultaneously, we initiate concerted action for 'refund' or 'service on other publication(s)'. And if we succeed in getting the refund, we send the credit to the customer; but if we do not, the customer may have to bear the loss -- because we (in that regrettable, though rare, happening) are equally helpless in having already paid in advance the annual subscription charges for the publication.
Information about Changes : Keeping a regular track of almost all Indian publications, we keep you also informed about the changes concerning the titles, frequencies and other aspects of the periodicals that you subscribe through us.
Publishers' Renewal Notices : Publishers often send renewal notices directly to the subscribers,and sometimes with an issue or two of the periodical(s) -- mindless of their subscription orders through an agent. It is likely, you too may receive a notice of this kind, even though we here (in India) have already paid the subscription charges for your copy, and got the renewal effective. Advisably, therefore, all notices/communications about renewals may be redirected to us, with/without your comments/ instructions. But please do not either pay the publisher directly or claim a title (on the basis of a renewal notice) from the publisher, as this can cause not only duplication, but other problems as well.
Newspapers : We also take care of your newspaper subscriptions, though newspapers are mailed to you (on our advice) directly by the publishers.
Sample Copies : We can, on your asking, arrange cost-free supply of sample copies of any Indian periodical. BACK VOLUMES
DK have come of age -- having grown in both size and skills. Concomitant with this growth, among other things, has been the continual swell of our stock of Indian periodicals. Which multiplying, as they do, with each passing year, have enabled us to fulfil back-set orders from both scholars and academics, from both libraries and research institutions, across the continents. Contextually, we may add that publishers (by and large) do not maintain stock of back numbers.
Long Range/Single Issue Orders : We can, anytime on your asking, supply back sets of Indian periodicals or even their single, stray issues and, thus, help you plug holes in your collections, Our enormous, continually-replenished stock of learned periodicals would fairly cater to many a scholarly profile. Also we may help you procure rare, inaccessible, and even long out-of-print periodicals/ serials -- which, obviously, are invaluable to researchers.
Additional Material : No matter the size of your order: comprising whether a large back-set or a single volume/issue, you are assured of the relevant supplemental material: title and contents pages, indexes and the like, if it is ever issued by the publishers.
Desiderata/Enquiries : Your enquiries concerning back runs or a single volume/issue of any journal/periodical from anywhere in the Indian subcontinent are quickly responded -- with quotations.
When asked for, we make 'special offer lists', each of which is thoughtfully tailored to the individual customer's requirements.
Our occasionally released catalogue: Back-files of Indian Periodicals and Serials, carries subject-wise lists of back-volumes that are readily available for supply. CONTINUATIONSSince the late sixties, DK have been fulfilling worldwide orders for continuations: regular or irregular, numbered or unnumbered,-- as a part of their comprehensive Acquisition Services for Indian monographs, periodicals and series publications: in English, Sanskrit, Tibetan and vernaculars: on all subject areas under humanities, social sciences, and science and technology.
We, for sure, are pleased to accept your Standing Orders --in list or slip format, for continuations of every kind:- Advances
- Annuals/Yearbooks
- International/National Congresses/Conferences
- Multi-volume Works in progress
- Series Publications
- Census Publications
Unblemished Record-keeping : In their very nature, continuations have an irregular frequency -- often taking very long time spans to complete. And, therefore, their acquisition presents a special problem to libraries.
We, however, have an unblemished record-keeping system that assures a library of any Indian title, it may be looking for. And, then, our these records are at once active -- including, as they do, continuations that have gone on publishing for over three decades.
Follow-up : We meticulously calendar yearbooks, annuals, advances, congresses and the like titles. And file a claim with publishers, if the arrival of new volumes does not keep schedule.
Additionally, we hold complete records of congresses and similar events: past, present and future, -- which we keep updating with information from all available sources. We are also in touch with the secretariats of all known international/national/regional congresses being organised in India from time to time, which publish the proceedings, either before or soon after the event -- or sometimes even months after the sessions have taken place.
Therefore, once you decide to place, with us, a standing order for any continuation, you can be assured that the publication you have asked for will be kept up-to-date, without any follow-up from you. This is true whether the continuation is published in a few months or over a span of many years.
Your Standing Order with us for any continuation thus guarantees you its automatic supply -- which though inheres the as-and-when published basis.
Reporting : All publications of this genre are regularly monitored to inform you of the delayed publication dates and changes in their titles or formats.
Should you find it necessary to claim a standing order, a current status report will be obtained as soon as possible.
Cancellation : If you ever desire to cancel a standing order, please notify us as soon as possible. The volumes in transit, or in process at DK may not be cancelled though. DK acknowledge all cancellations.
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