51¶¯Âþ

Libraries

Libraries

The Libraries of the Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ 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.
Academy Owned Scholarly Publishing Landscape Report
Launched in the fall of 2022, the Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ [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 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 51¶¯Âþ Groups Mobilize to Further Digital Accessibility

    Aug 5, 2024, 12:10 PM

    Preparing to respond to the new Title II accessibility regulations, several peer communities banded together to form Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ Accessibility Collaboration. Partnering across the consortium are the IT Accessibility Group, ADA Coordinators, Learning Technology Leaders, the Library Accessibility Group, and others.

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  • Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ Welcomes UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington

    Aug 2, 2024, 11:02 AM

    The Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ is excited to welcome the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Southern California (USC), the University of Oregon, and the University of Washington into the nation's premier consortium of leading research universities. For over 65 years, the world-class institutions of the Big Ten have advanced their academic missions, generated unique opportunities for students and faculty, and served the common good by sharing expertise, leveraging campus resources, and collaborating on innovative programs.

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  • Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ + Next Generation Library Publishing Announce the Launch of a Pilot Project

    Jul 24, 2024, 09:51 AM

    The Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ (BTAA) is excited to announce a partnership with the Next Generation Library Publishing (NGLP) project. This collaboration aims to test and enhance infrastructure solutions for academy-owned scholarly publishing programs that are open source, community-led, and rooted in academic values. The pilot project will create a unified discovery layer for the diverse publishing platforms of participating libraries, presenting them as a single, shared collection of open access materials.

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  • Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ libraries are now live with OCLC Resource Sharing for Groups

    Jun 17, 2024, 11:28 AM

    OCLC is partnering with the Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ (BTAA) to advance development of OCLC Resource Sharing for Groups, a new solution that reimagines resource sharing with a focus on library groups and consortia. OCLC and the BTAA are working together to support the evolution of BTAA's UBorrow service, which offers access to more than 90 million books from the collections of 15 university libraries and the Center for Research Libraries, as part of OCLC's Resource Sharing for Groups.

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  • Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ libraries and Coherent Digital expand coverage of the Global South

    May 1, 2024, 14:44 PM

    Today, the libraries of Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ confirmed the purchase of three additional modules of Africa Commons, a large-scale, multiyear project to digitize, disseminate, and discover African cultural materials, building on their 2022 founding-member purchase of the first module, African History and Culture. In addition, the Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ has been named a founding member of South Asia Commons.

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  • Better together: BTAA Libraries, CDL and Lyrasis commit to strengthen Diamond Open Access in the United States

    Apr 18, 2024, 10:59 AM

    Representatives from the Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ Libraries (BTAA Libraries), California Digital Library (CDL) and Lyrasis attended the Global Summit on Diamond Open Access in Toluca, Mexico in October 2023. The Summit convened the international community to engage in dialog about how to advance Diamond Open Access(OA) to secure scholarly research as a public good and ensure equitable access to both the publishing and reading of that research.

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  • The Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ and the Biochemical Society Sign Read & Publish Agreement in Support of Open Access Publishing

    Nov 8, 2023, 09:00 AM

    The Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ (BTAA) and the Biochemical Society are delighted to announce a Read & Publish agreement that supports the open sharing of research and knowledge from across the molecular biosciences.

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  • Increasing Access:  BTAA Libraries Project on Open Homework Systems

    Sep 20, 2023, 10:33 AM

    Penn State University Libraries is leading a pilot project on behalf of the Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ to develop a model for supporting open-source online homework delivery systems as supplemental resources for teaching with open educational resources (OER).

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  • Big Ten Open Books Project Launches First Collection

    Aug 1, 2023, 09:00 AM

    In partnership with six member university presses, the University Librarians of the Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ announce the launch of the Big Ten Open Books project, a collaboration between the university presses and libraries of the Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ.

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  • Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ and Accessible Archives’ New African American and Women’s History Collections

    Apr 25, 2023, 10:50 AM

    The Big Ten 51¶¯Âþ announces the acquisition of new essential primary source content for member libraries through Accessible Archives. The range includes African American Newspapers in the South, 1870-1926, and The Woman’s Tribune, 1882-1909.

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