At first sight, the "big deal" seems an excellent value for academic libraries. A more thorough-going evaluation, however, exposes dangers. This paper examines the roles and strengths of the players in the information supply chain: creators, publishers, intermediaries, libraries. Traditional hard-copy procurement is analysed in terms of these…

The review and negotiation of license agreements has become a time-consuming but necessary part of the job of providing access to the electronic information resources required by libraries' patrons. The nature of these agreements may pose a number of barriers to the development of fully integrated collections. This article presents a fictitious…

The increasing popularity of digital information has brought great convenience to library patrons. It has, however, posed challenges to libraries in achieving their major missions, i.e., preservation and dissemination of information. The underlying reasons for this phenomenon are dichotomous: the restrictions imposed by electronic information…