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.
ADA Title II & Libraries
Catch the webinar replay + slides from our August 27 event. Now posted on our Accessibility page.
Big Ten Open Books
A new model for open-access publishing—free, trusted titles from Big Ten university presses..
Shared Print White Paper
Explore the vision for a collaborative, distributed archive across Big Ten libraries.
Article examines CIC, University of Chicago digitization efforts
"Scanning and digitizing one book costs $60. Scanning and digitizing the University’s 7.7 million printed works would cost $462 million. A price as steep as that makes it easy to understand why the University of Chicago is not leading a digitizing initiative on its own," writes reporter Al Gaspari.
The article quotes Judith Nadler, director of the University of Chicago Library, as well as CIC Director Barbara McFadden Allen.