Greetings all - this info regarding Faxon [Divine Library SErvices] came across my email
Sonja
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Sonja Staum-Kuniej
Director of Content Development
and Collaborations
IHC Smart Desktop Initiative
Indiana Humanities Council
1500 N. Delaware
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 317.638.1500
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ihc4u.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Harmon, Joseph C.
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 7:15 AM
To: IN-ULIB-ULFO
Subject: Further info on Faxon failure from Amer. Libs online
-----Original Message-----
From: George Eberhart [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 5:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [AL_NEWS:204] Breaking News, January 6 American Libraries
Online
Breaking News, January 6 American Libraries Online
<http://www.ala.org/alonline/index.html>
> Divine Failure Leaves
Library Subscriptions Hanging
> Library of Congress
Booted Out of the Capitol
> Pew Study Finds
Internet Expectations High
> Russian Prosecutor:
Harry Potter Isn't Satanic
Divine Failure Leaves
Library Subscriptions Hanging
Divine Library Services, one of the largest subscription
agencies in the United States, has stopped processing orders in
the wake of an apparent financial failure. The century-old
agency - known as Faxon until 1999, then as RoweCom until
it was acquired in November 2001 by software-and-services
vendor Divine - recommended in a December 20
announcement that its clients find "alternative sources for your
materials" because it has "not been able to place or make
payments for the substantial majority" of its 2003 orders.
Information Today reported December 20 that prepayments
to the agency could be stuck in financial limbo for months, with
some customers losing both funds and orders. However, the
company announced that three publishers - Elsevier, John
Wiley, and Blackwell - have agreed to distribute journals
through January to DLS subscribers.
Meanwhile, the Birmingham, Alabama-based Ebsco Industries
has signed a letter of intent to acquire the DLS European
operation, and Divine announced it is "in active negotiations
with Swets Blackwell" for the sale of some or all of its
subscription operations worldwide.
Some executives at DLS have left, including Senior Vice
President Jim Krzywicki, who was former chief operations
officer at RoweCom. Information Today said that the main
office in Westwood, Massachusetts, was down to no more
than 100 employees, while the Canadian and London offices
have been closed.
Divine has established an ad hoc committee of publishers and
customers to search for solutions. Libraries interested in
participating can contact the committee at
[log in to unmask]
Library of Congress
Booted Out of the Capitol
A shortage of office space has resulted in the closing of the
only branch of the Library of Congress located in the U.S.
Capitol. When the new Congress goes into session this month,
interns of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D- Calif.) will move into the tiny,
two-room basement facility, which was shut December 31.
Although a December 27 New York Post article (headlined
"Pelosi Closes the Books") blamed the move on the new
House Democratic leader, LC spokesperson Helen Dalrymple
told American Libraries that the decision to convert the
library into much-needed office space was made before it was
assigned to Pelosi, who is losing several rooms from her office
suite because of construction on an adjacent visitor center set
for completion in 2005.
"It's really too bad this is closing," Sen Charles Schumer
(D-N.Y.), a member of the Joint Committee on the Library,
told the Post. "It would have been nice if they could have
found a way to keep it open."
The facility offered a small reference collection with a couple of
terminals, magazines, and newspapers, said Dalrymple. Its two
employees will be assigned elsewhere within LC's Collection,
Access, Loan, and Management division.
Pew Study Finds
Internet Expectations High
A survey conducted in September and October 2002 by the
Pew Research Center shows that at least 80% of Internet users
expect to find reliable news, health-care resources, and
government information on the Web. News hounds were the
most optimistic, with 85% of users expecting to find reliable,
up-to-date news on the Web, and 41% reporting that they
always find the news they are looking for.
Expectations were nearly as high for commercial sites, with
79% of users counting on finding information about products
they are considering for purchase. "With the passage of time,
people are gaining more experience and comfort with the
Internet and what it offers," survey author John Horrigan said in
a December 30 Reuters report. But only 35% expected to find
reliable information about persons online.
"The fact that the Web is becoming more mundane for people
is a double-edged sword," Internet marketing consultant and
Columbia University Professor Ruth Stevens said in the
December 30 E-Commerce Times. "At the same time
consumers are more sophisticated, they are also more likely to
trust a Web site with their private information. The more times
they do that, the more vulnerable they are."
Survey results are available on the Pew Research Center Web
site.
Russian Prosecutor:
Harry Potter Isn't Satanic
Russian schoolchildren will still be able to read the adventures
of wizard-in-training Harry Potter now that an attempt to ban
the series was thwarted. The Moscow City Prosecutor's
Office declined December 31 to bring criminal hate-crime
charges against Rosman Publishing for making available a
Russian-language version of Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets.
The investigation began December 16 after an unidentified
Moscow-area woman from the Tarusa chapter of the
International Foundation for Slavic Writing and Culture filed
charges that the book "instilled religious extremism and
prompted students to join religious organizations of Satanist
followers," Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for the
prosecutor's office, stated. "The probe revealed that there
were no grounds for a criminal case," she added.
"Claims of Satanism are absolute nonsense," Rosman
spokeswoman Natalya Dolgova said in the December 24
Moscow Times. However, the alternative online publication
PrimaNews theorized December 25 that the charges were a bit
too reminiscent of the tactics of "Soviet times," in which
"works of art which happened to cause displeasure of the
authorities . . . were immediately confiscated and banned 'at
request of outraged working people'" from bookstores and
library circulation.
The article went on to note that the depiction of house-spirit
Dobby in the film version closely resembles the main character
of the Russian cartoon Kukly, which was unsuccessfully
challenged in 1995 for "insulting the head of state," Vladimir
Putin.
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in the Reader Forum section. Send 250 words or less to
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