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

Big Ten Academic Alliance Cooperative Cataloging Partnership receives ALCTS Collaboration Award

Feb 27, 2018, 10:43 AM

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has selected the Big Ten Academic Alliance Cooperative Cataloging Partnership (BTAA CCP) as the recipient of the ALCTS Outstanding Collaboration Citation for 2018.

The Outstanding Collaboration Citation recognizes and encourages collaborative problem-solving efforts in the areas of acquisition, access, management, preservation or archiving of library materials. It recognizes a demonstrated benefit from actions, services or products that improve and benefit providing and managing library collections. The citation will be presented on June 23 at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 2018 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, La.

As documented in the Library Resources and Technical Services (LRTS) article (v. 61, no. 2, April 2017) “Strength in Numbers: Building a Consortial Cooperative Cataloging Partnership,” the BTAA developed a pilot program among its cataloging units to match cataloging expertise at one institution with cataloging needs at another, allowing collections that might otherwise remain hidden in backlogs to be made available at the institutional level and, through ILL and union catalogs, to the world at large. During the pilot 768 materials in 27 languages and a variety of formats were cataloged by BTAA partners. The pilot demonstrated the economic feasibility of developing a consortial service, and the CCP began as an official program on July 1, 2016. The successful transition from pilot to official program enabled the partnership to grow, expanding to additional institutions, to 40 languages, and has provided metadata for over 1,863 titles.

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is the national association for information providers who work in collections and technical services, such as acquisitions, cataloging, collection development, preservation and continuing resources in digital and print formats. ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.