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 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

CIC/Google Celebrate Major Milestone: A Million Digitized Volumes

Feb 4, 2011, 12:07 PM

The CIC is proud to announce an important milestone: Google has digitized and returned a million volumes from CIC member libraries. The milestone was noted with a Feb. 4 article posted on the "Inside Google Books" blog, authored by Kim Armstrong, Deputy Director of the CIC Center for Library Initiatives.

This project represents one of the largest cooperative ventures of its kind in higher education; at its completion, 10 million volumes will have been scanned and returned to CIC library shelves. The partnership is significant because it has enabled CIC institutions to preserve and make material available worldwide within a short period of time.

"Collaboration isn't just something we do among our members, it's a basic philosophy for our consortia. We are proud to partner with Google," Armstrong said.

More information is available on the Google-CIC Partnership here.