JISC is the Joint Information Systems Committee of the four Higher Education Funding Councils in the UK and also has a responsibility for networked services to the Further Education Colleges. JISC Strategy includes “improving the effectiveness of scholarly communication”. This involves implementing cost-effective improvements in access to academic content for learners and researchers in colleges and universities. One route to cost-effective improvements in access through negotiation of “big deals” – Pilot Site Licence Initiative 1996-99, NESLI 1999-2002, NESLi2 2002-. This route partially effective but many difficulties – e.g. long negotiations, small publishers not included, many universities and colleges unable to buy in. Push for Open Access coming from both JISC Journals Working Group and JISC Scholarly Communication Group.