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

Six CIC Libraries To Begin Pilot Program with Corsotial Borrowing Software Relais D2D

Mar 31, 2011, 22:01 PM

Six CIC libraries have agreed to proceed with a pilot of Relais D2D, a next-generation software platform for consortial borrowing.

The University of Chicago; University of Iowa; University of Michigan; Michigan State University; Northwestern University; and Pennsylvania State University will implement Relais D2D over the summer with the goal of being live by the fall semester 2011.

Relais D2D is a standards based, open system that offers a framework upon which new services and options can be offered to patrons. The MasterKey™ platform from Index Data is the basis for a fully featured discovery layer for patrons. A ‘live’ availability check notifies the patron immediately as to whether the material they want can be supplied from a CIC library. Should the material not be available, the option to submit a request for processing via traditional ILL is provided. In the CIC implementation Relais D2D will pass the availability information for requests to each library’s local ILL system, ILLiad. The library staff will manage all requests via their respective ILLiad system. Atlas Systems and Relais International are working together to support this feature.

Clare MacKeigan, COO of Relais International, says “We are delighted to be working together with the CIC members to provide a new resource sharing platform for their end users and staff. As with all of our customers, we are looking forward to a long and close working relationship.”