Out with the old and in with the new.

RoweCom/Faxon, Eastern’s library subscription provider, filed for bankruptcy Jan. 27.

The university’s magazine and journal contract was set to switch providers July 1, but Eastern will stay with EBSCO, the company buying out the failed provider.

Booth Library has stopped receiving some reading material since December, but publishers have graced most pre-paid subscriptions since January, said Allen Lanham, dean of library services.

As of now “more and more publishers have agreed to grace the journals,” he said.

RoweCom, a subsidiary of Divine Inc., claimed the parent company legally obtained funds, leaving the subscription provider unable to pay publishers and libraries they supply in danger of not offering patrons reading material.

Divine filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 25.

Information provider company EBSCO is finalizing purchase of RoweCom Tuesday, Lanham said.

“The new payment to EBSCO will be for 2004,” Lanham said. “For 2003 we are relying on the good faith” of the subscription providers and other associated companies.

Eastern is potentially out $290,000 because of the bankruptcy. The number is the 2003 amount of the university contract for library subscriptions.

Illinois State University is out over $1.1 million in unsecured liability.

ISU made its last payment to Faxon in December, said Cheryl Elzy, dean of the university’s Milner Library.

Most subscriptions have been graced for three to six months. But two-thirds of the magazines not provided by Faxon are unaffected, Elzy said.

“Faxon also paid subscriptions to virtually all of our foreign accounts since that operation was sold off to EBSCO first,” she said. “And yes, ISU is still receiving magazine and journal subscriptions … but certainly not all that we got before.”

The university will likely now distribute magazines between two or four providers “depending on cost differentials and other factors.”

Interlibrary loan requests are rising dramatically, she said.

“Obviously students, faculty and other users are extraordinarily concerned since this affects their ability to do research and the depth of support we can provide for their classes.”

Text journals and the Internet aren’t helping enough.

“These will be a tough few months until we get our FY04 appropriations and can get our 4,000 subscriptions restarted through other firms,” she said.