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 on mass digitization efforts at Northwestern cites CIC
The article, "Materials keep going digital at library," highlights the CIC's agreement with Google Book Search to digitize up to 10 million volumes from its member libraries:
"The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium of all the Big Ten schools and the University of Chicago, has a contract with Google to complete a mass digitization of library materials. Google representatives will come to the campuses with a truck, fill it with books, take the books to a scanning facility and then return the materials to the university."
The article also mentions that the volumes selected by Google will focus on the University's distinctive collections, such as the materials from Africana and Transportation Libraries.