More and more websites are foregoing the idea of posting phone numbers, fax numbers, and other contact info. in lieu of plastering the ubiquitous email address. HEY! Sometimes we might actually need to call you on the phone!

Let me say that I think it is completely tacky and shows a complete disregard for your customers/users if you do not provide your phone number or address somewhere LOGICAL and ON your website. I can't tell you the number of journal providers, database providers, and other vendors that simply do not provide easy to find phone numbers.

JOURNAL PUBLISHERS AND VENDORS you are the worst and the most at fault. When a journal goes down and I have angry doctors stalking me for access to a site that is now "broken," email is a very poor contact solution. I often need to know now if it is the journal site having problems or if it is one of those lovely electronic subscription snafus that seem to always occur. I need to call you (often the doctor won't leave until I have you on the phone), but you people just seem to conveniently leave all logical contact information off of your site. It as if you don't want anybody to call you and for you to have answer the phone and do your job.

For example take a look and tell me who I can easily call for the journal Physical Therapy if online access isn't working, or The Journal of Heart Valve Disease. I guess you could contact the society but they often have no idea what you are talking about and have to transfer you endlessly to somebody who might know something.

But this is not just limited to those who provide to libraries, I have experienced the email hell with libraries and library associations as well. A perfect example is the Medical Library Association. I am currently in the process of getting all my ducks in a row to get my AHIP credentials. I have been a medical librarian about six years and this is my first year applying for membership. I had questions that weren't quite answered in their FAQs and information and I wanted to ask to the powers that be. They provided an email and I naively thought I would ask my questions by email and I would get a quick response. Well nope, I have yet to get a response from them and it has been well over a couple of months since I emailed them. SHAME on you MLA! Their is constant talk about the value of MLA membership and AHIP certification but you can not even answer an email from a medical librarian regarding it. What does that say about you?! Now they do have a phone number posted on their site, but what is the point of offering an email if you don't intend to reply!?!?

This is my appeal to all web designers, please include other relevant contact information other than an email. For libraries, organizations, and companies who have email contacts, please answer them! I realize for some large entities this could get problematic and time consuming, but come up a solution to handle it. There is no excuse to allow an email from a member, a potential customer, or a library user to go into the email abyss.