The papers in this issue and the next issue of Vine (110 and 111) are concerned with the impact of electronic journals, and fall into two main groups: those from libraries, and those from publishers. There is no paper from a purely commercial publisher, and one of the “library” papers is in fact from the managing agents of the NESLI programme, who negotiate on behalf of libraries. Despite these caveats, the groupings do make clear the difference in position that exists between those who look at electronic information services from the viewpoint of the librarian (as surrogate for the end user), and those who look at them from the viewpoint of the supplier. The hybrid case is perhaps Tom Wilson, a supplier in this case, but very much on the side of the academic rather than the publisher, and putting the case for the free electronic journal.