I found this useful entry at Microsoft's Import, export, and link data between Access and Excel

Link to data in Excel

If you don't want to maintain a copy of the data in your Access database, you can instead link to the Excel worksheet. Linking lets you connect to data in Excel without importing it, so that you can view the data in Access. You can update the data in the worksheet when you are working in Excel and your changes will be shown when you view the linked table in Access.

When you link to a worksheet or a named range, Access creates a new table that is linked to the source cells. Linking has an advantage over importing — when you change data in the Excel worksheet, the linked table in Access updates to reflect those changes.

If this is the first time you are linking to an Excel worksheet, you should know the following:

• You cannot create a link to an Access database from within Excel.
• You cannot link Excel data to an existing table in the database. When you create a link, Access creates a new table, often referred to as a linked table. The table shows the data in the source worksheet or named range, but it doesn't actually store the data in the database.
• A database can have multiple linked tables.
• Any change that you make to the data in Excel will be automatically reflected in the linked table.
• When you open an Excel worksheet in Access (In the File Open dialog box, change the Files of Type list box to Microsoft Office Excel Files, and select the file you want), Access creates a blank database, and automatically starts the Link Spreadsheet Wizard.

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