Students may have a difficult time getting their hands on magazines and journals at McIntyre Library lately due to the recent file for bankruptcy by the library’s periodical provider, RoweCom/Faxon.

“There can be no assurance any journals will be distributed after January of 2003,” the company said in a recent statement to customers.

RoweCom/Faxon went on to say that they had “not been able to pay for a substantial majority of customer orders for 2003 subscriptions.”

McIntyre library has relied on the the company’s periodical services for years.

“We’ve been with Faxon for 20 years,” said assistant library professor Ronadin Carey, who added that RoweCom/Faxon is also suing its parent company.

“It’s gotten quite complicated.”

The library receives over 1500 periodicals from more than 400 different vendors through the company, Carey said.

RoweCom/Faxon handles all of the payments and ordering, and then the library makes one large payment and a few smaller payments to them, rather than writing out 1500 different checks for the subscriptions, she said.

The library has already made an early payment of $300,000 for the 2003 subscriptions, Carey said, explaining that making an early payment to RoweCom/Faxon meant receiving a discount.

Carey said they were suspicious before the company made an official statement, noting irregularities earlier.

“It started out accidental,” she said.

She also said that they aren’t entirely sure if the university will get its money back, or if subscriptions will be halted until the problem is resolved.

“Over 3500 libraries … which include six UW campuses, as well as many private college and public, private and corporate libraries in the United States have been affected by this bankruptcy,” said library employees Janice Bogstad, Carey and Robert Rose in a memo to the UW-Eau Claire deans, department chairs and bibliographers.

Because the company has filed for bankruptcy, Carey said she is not sure how many periodical shipments will be delayed.

For now, Carey said most of the larger companies will give the library a grace period to prevent a halt in shipments.