id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
ital-8955	Martin, Susan K.	Buyer Be Wary!	1974-12-01	2	.pdf	application/pdf	746	35	53	There are several reliable paths: ( 1) be aware of and alert to the possibilities of misleading claims and misrepresentation; ( 2) follow up a sales pitch with a few phone calls to those institutions that are described to be using the product or about to sign the contract; ( 3) maintain a reasonable amount of resistance to the sales talk; ( 4) use the library profession's invisible col- lege to determine the validity of the claims and the experiences that oth- ers have had with the firm; and ( 5) support the attempts of our profes- sional societies, such as ALA and ASIS, to require organizations to main- tain certain advertising standards. Most approaches fall into one of the following categories: ( 1) misleading advertising, with unclear statements and imprecise use of vocabulary; ( 2) claims that one, or several, or many other libraries are using the product with satisfac- tion (when this indeed is not the case); ( 3) specific statements that a large and prestigious library is about to sign a contract for servic~s or products (although investigation will reveal no such intention); ( 4) lists of experts in the field who are presumed to be associated with the company in an ad- visory or consultant role (but who are unaware of this use of their names); and ( 5) approaches to federal, state, or local agencies to appeal 248 Journal of Library Automation Vol.	cache/ital-8955.pdf	txt/ital-8955.txt