When an intangible object such as knowledge or information is priced, it complicates discussions over what is accessible to whom and at what cost. Over the past couple of decades university libraries have found themselves entangled in exorbitant contracts with academic publishers, in order to have access to quality research materials for their users. The profit-driven motives of academic publishing companies do not align with the ideological motives of academic libraries. When a university library spends the majority of its budget on temporary access to journals, it no longer has the funds for other important aspects of the library, such as hiring, other collection development, or utility maintenance. Institutions are stuck in between accumulating quality resources with a hefty price tag or venturing off into the less expensive though relatively unknown world of open access, otherwise known as OA.