The E-Deal: Keeping Up to Date and Allowing Access to the End User

The “Big Deal” presents unique problems when tracking, cataloging, and promoting content. This article considers different ways of ensuring that content is accurately identified and recorded, and suggests a range of ways in which material can be made available to end users. Issues raised include staffing, the problems of cataloging digital items, and the reliability of knowledge bases and electronic resource management systems (ERMs), which import detail on e-journal packages. Finally, the article looks forward to potential developments that will allow deals to be managed in a way that makes them more current and relevant.