The article discusses how subscription services for electronic publications can add value to academic libraries. The author looks at the subscription agent for academic periodicals called JSTOR and its platform offered by the ITHAKA subscription service. Additional topics include the June 2011 decision by the American Institute of Physics to discontinue its use of its Scitation electronic publication platform in 2012, as well as the electronic publication platform of the publisher Taylor and Francis. Also discussed are academic libraries' strategies for data management in their work with intermediary subscription providers and intermediary vendors.