Libraries

The Libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance are aligned in the vision of uniting our separate collections into one collection, shared and fully networked: the BIG Collection. By this phrase we mean a holistic and comprehensive understanding of what a library "collection" is: not simply the things we hold, but our services; our people; our expertise; our technology; and our infrastructure.

In advancing this future of interdependence and excellence, we are guided by our North Star in everything that we do:

In order to advance a just, trustworthy, scalable & sustainable open knowledge ecosystem, make open, more equitable scholarship our lead purpose.

On these pages, you'll find more about the services, programs, and community that are advancing this vision in a principles-centered, mission-driven, values-aligned way.

 

 
Library News

  • Big Ten Academic Alliance + Next Generation Library Publishing Announce the Launch of a Pilot Project

    Jul 24, 2024, 09:51 by User Not Found
    The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) is excited to announce a partnership with the Next Generation Library Publishing (NGLP) project. This collaboration aims to test and enhance infrastructure solutions for academy-owned scholarly publishing programs that are open source, community-led, and rooted in academic values. The pilot project will create a unified discovery layer for the diverse publishing platforms of participating libraries, presenting them as a single, shared collection of open access materials.
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  • Big Ten Academic Alliance libraries are now live with OCLC Resource Sharing for Groups

    Jun 17, 2024, 11:28 by User Not Found
    OCLC is partnering with the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) to advance development of OCLC Resource Sharing for Groups, a new solution that reimagines resource sharing with a focus on library groups and consortia. OCLC and the BTAA are working together to support the evolution of BTAA's UBorrow service, which offers access to more than 90 million books from the collections of 15 university libraries and the Center for Research Libraries, as part of OCLC's Resource Sharing for Groups.
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  • Big Ten Academic Alliance libraries and Coherent Digital expand coverage of the Global South

    May 1, 2024, 14:44 by User Not Found
    Today, the libraries of Big Ten Academic Alliance confirmed the purchase of three additional modules of Africa Commons, a large-scale, multiyear project to digitize, disseminate, and discover African cultural materials, building on their 2022 founding-member purchase of the first module, African History and Culture. In addition, the Big Ten Academic Alliance has been named a founding member of South Asia Commons.
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  • Better together: BTAA Libraries, CDL and Lyrasis commit to strengthen Diamond Open Access in the United States

    Apr 18, 2024, 10:59 by User Not Found
    Representatives from the Big Ten Academic Alliance Libraries (BTAA Libraries), California Digital Library (CDL) and Lyrasis attended the Global Summit on Diamond Open Access in Toluca, Mexico in October 2023. The Summit convened the international community to engage in dialog about how to advance Diamond Open Access(OA) to secure scholarly research as a public good and ensure equitable access to both the publishing and reading of that research.
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  • The Big Ten Academic Alliance and the Biochemical Society Sign Read & Publish Agreement in Support of Open Access Publishing

    Nov 8, 2023, 09:00 by User Not Found
    The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) and the Biochemical Society are delighted to announce a Read & Publish agreement that supports the open sharing of research and knowledge from across the molecular biosciences.
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