Libraries

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.

Academy Owned Scholarly Publishing Landscape Report
Launched in the fall of 2022, the Big Ten Academic Alliance [BTAA] landscape assessment of academy owned scholarly publishing activities explores the shared challenges and opportunities facing publishing programs and operations within the Big Ten institutions.
big ten open books
Big Ten Open Books
Big Ten Open Books connects readers everywhere to fully accessible, trusted books from leading university presses. Established as a new model for open-access publishing focused on equity and inclusion, we invite you to explore our Gender and Sexuality studies collection.
BIG Collection: Resource Access Policy Harmonization Report
The Resource Access Policy Harmonization pilot team is pleased to share their final report. Aspirational in nature, the report includes the new BTAA Resource Sharing Agreement plus Scanning Standards; reaffirms the Principles and Protocols for Sharing Special Collections within the Big Ten; and articulates important next steps for future pilot projects and working group investigations.

Library News

Daily Illini Examines the CIC's Role in Digitization at the University of Illinois

Jul 20, 2010, 11:07 AM

The Daily Illini, the student newspaper at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on July 15 published an in-depth article spotlighting digitization efforts at the University of Illinois library and the CIC's role in those efforts. The University of Illinois...

The Daily Illini, the student newspaper at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on July 15 published an in-depth article spotlighting digitization efforts at the University of Illinois library and the CIC's role in those efforts.

The University of Illinois recently became the latest CIC member to start the process of digitizing its collection of  Government Documents for the CIC/Google Government Documents Project. The Daily Illini interviewed Mark Sandler, director of the CIC's Center for Library Initiatives, about the project.

“We’re now moving on to the University of Illinois, which has worked carefully to identify a substantial number of volumes to send. Then, in five or six months, we’ll move on to another CIC university,” Sandler told the paper.

The article also mentions the CIC's partnership with the Google Book Search Project to digitize up to 10 million volumes from the consortium, as well as the HathiTrust, the shared digital repository co-founded by the CIC members.