ABSTRACT

After a library has acquired the right to access an e-journal, it must activate and maintain this access. Meeting these objectives is a challenging process. It requires a library’s e-resource administrator(s) to develop detailed yet flexible workflows and to rely upon a wide and constantly changing array of tools and partners, many of which were nonexistent in a print-dominated environment. Kittie Henderson vividly describes the added degree of difficulty inherent in the management of e-journals when she comments that, “if print serials are like greased pigs, then e-journals are like greased pigs on speed.”1 Through a discussion of the activation and maintenance of e-journal access, this chapter describes how a library can grab hold of these speed-addled swine, wrestle them to the ground, and lock them up in their pen. Put more literally, it provides an overview of the tasks, tools, and partners involved in the administrator’s efforts to make sure that ejournal access is successfully provided to users and managed by the users’ library.