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.

web accessibility
Library Accessibility Group webinar: Revised ADA Title II in the Library
The slides and recording from the webinar on August 27, 2024 are now available.
Explore the Future of Library Collaboration: Shared Print Collection White Paper Now Available
Discover the foundational ideas and strategic vision behind the Big Ten Academic Alliance's Shared Print Collection. This new white paper outlines the progress and collective benefits of transitioning to a distributed, networked archive. Learn how the Shared Print Collection is redefining access, equity, and collaboration for the Big Ten community and beyond.
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

  • BTAA Announces Collective Action Agreement with arXiv

    Feb 10, 2022, 11:22 AM

    The fifteen world-class research libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance have agreed to support arXiv, a community-supported resource administered by Cornell University, at the champion level for the next three years.

    Full Story

  • Library Accessibility Alliance Announces New Website & Expanded Resources

    Aug 23, 2021, 11:32 AM

    Members of the Library Accessibility Alliance (LAA) are pleased to announce their new website, featuring enhancements to the popular accessibility evaluations of databases, along with an expanded collection of resources.

    Full Story

  • Big Ten Academic Alliance and University of Michigan Press Announce Fund to Mission Agreement

    Aug 5, 2021, 14:52 PM

    The Big Ten Academic Alliance and the University of Michigan Press have signed a three-year agreement that provides multi-year support for Fund to Mission from all fifteen member libraries. Fund to Mission is the Press’s open access monograph model that aligns with its mission and commitment to equity, justice, inclusion, and accessibility.The model demonstrates a return to the origins of the university press movement and moves toward a more open, sustainable infrastructure for the humanities and social sciences. It is one of several programs that university presses are developing to expand the reach of their specialist publications.

    Full Story

  • The Big Ten Academic Alliance joins Direct to Open from the MIT Press

    Jul 21, 2021, 13:51 PM

    The MIT Press and the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) have entered a three-year collective action agreement that provides Direct to Open (D2O) access for all fifteen BTAA member libraries. An innovative, sustainable framework for open access monographs, D2O moves professional and scholarly books from a solely market-based, purchase model to a collaborative, library-supported open access model.

    Full Story

  • BTAA Joins Open Library of Humanities

    Jul 19, 2021, 11:18 AM

    The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) and the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) have signed a three-year collective agreement that provides multi-year support for OLH from all of the BTAA’s fifteen member libraries. This move was made possible thanks to the OLH Open Consortial Offer, an initiative that offers consortia, societies, networks and scholarly projects the opportunity to join the Open Library of Humanities Library Partnership Subsidy system as a bloc, enabling each institution to benefit from a discount.

    Full Story

  • Maurice York Appointed Director of Library Initiatives

    May 5, 2020, 11:00 AM

    Full Story

  • Big Ten Academic Alliance and ASERL partner to form Library Accessibility Alliance

    Jan 7, 2020, 11:44 AM

    The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) and the Big Ten Academic Alliance have created a new name for their recent partnership to advance accessibility for library electronic resources. Now called the “Library Accessibility Alliance” (LAA), the program seeks to ensure all library users have equitable access to information.

    Full Story

  • BTAA and ASERL Announce Library Accessibility Partnership

    Aug 1, 2019, 09:34 AM

    The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) and the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) have entered into a two-year partnership to advance accessibility for library electronic resources, with the goal of providing equal access to information for all library users. Since 2016, the BTAA has been conducting third-party evaluations of electronic resource platforms and collections, publicly posting the evaluations for review by vendors and libraries.

    Full Story

  • Sustaining Values and Scholarship: A Statement by the Provosts of the Big Ten Academic Alliance

    Jun 10, 2019, 09:49 AM

    The Big Ten Academic Alliance continues its advocacy for a sustainable and open ecosystem of publication. Collectively, our institutions’ more than 50,000 faculty are supported by over $10 billion (2017) in research funding, and our institutions have similarly invested significantly in our capacity to further our missions to advance knowledge. Together, we produce roughly 15% of the research publications in the United States.

    Full Story

  • 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.

    Full Story