Reprinted from libsup-l with permission. -mt

From: Mary Niederlander [mailto:mary@wnyla.org]
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 7:55 AM
To: libsup-l@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Divine/Faxon/Rowe.com Renewals Problem

Hi,

We had heard about a week ago, that the stock price for Faxon/Rowe had
dropped "a lot!!". And we also found out that 2 big libraries, The
University of Buffalo HSL and a Hospital Library, were scrambling to stop
payment on anything not paid to a publisher by Faxon, and were switching
(back) to Ebsco.  So we (a 4 hospital library system) also decided to see
if we too could "switch". We got a report from Faxon, which was supposed
to state the current status of payment, etc. for each title on our renewal
list.

I spent last Thursday, highlighting everything that I thought I could
"assume" was already paid for. This included titles marked, Invoiced and
EFT (which we were told, meant the publisher received payment via
electronic fund transfer). and I also highlighted titles that actually had
"check issued and cashed". I thought that anything left - would be the
titles we would have now "Ebsco" renew and pay for us.

Well! UB's HSL, did a little checking, and found that many of the titles
marked invoiced & EFT - HAVE NOT BEEN PAID by Faxon.

My suspicion is (and it is ONLY MY OWN Feelings)- that Faxon/Rowe, waited
until they had "money" in hand and renewals sent in, before letting out
the news of their company's financial status/or/problems.

We do have a bit of a MESS on our hands for next years journal
subscriptions. I don't know how it will all play out, but claiming, etc.
will be a problem as will access to online content, and the normal daily
problems associated with Serials folks, no matter which company you go
with.

Oh well, I look at things as job security - and all part of the "behind
the scenes" stuff, that goes on, while our patrons - blissfully think of
us as a well run "information machine".

We are supposed to be getting another "report" today - I'll share anything
new that comes along....

Mary Niederlander,
Buffalo, NY
mary@wnyla.org

Resource Links for Serials Specialists on LibrarySupportStaff.com
http://librarysupportstaff.com/jobhelp3.html