All or nothing: towards an orderly retreat from big deals: recent negotiations in the Netherlands

Big deals are seductive and addictive. That's why some librarians love them and others hate them - and many librarians do both. This presentation explores the opportunities but also the challenges of big deals, both from a financial perspective and from the perspective of content. Even if big deals represent the best value for money model, the lack of flexibility will cause severe problems with respect to the sustainability of the model. Big deals can as easily deteriorate the coherence of a consortium as enforce it. This is illustrated with recent experiences in The Netherlands.