Left Holding the Bag: A Tale of Two Companies

Abstract

The bankruptcy of two major serial agents within twelve years calls into question whether academic libraries are appropriately monitoring and overseeing the business partners to whom we entrust very large sums of money. The background events leading to the financial collapse of RoweCom/divine and Swets Information Services are reviewed and compared, along with a discussion of industry mechanisms to judge financial stability. Without adherence to financial best practices libraries risk being “left holding the bag” of problems, blame, and lost serial money.

KEYWORDS:

• bankruptcy
• serial agents
• RoweCom
• divine, inc.
• Swets Information Services