Big Ten Open Books Project Launches First Collection

In partnership with six member university presses, the University Libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance announce the launch of the Big Ten Open Books Project, a collaboration between the university presses and libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

The first 100-title collection, centered on Gender and Sexuality studies, is now published. The works included in the collection were previously published in print by the partnering university presses and are now being made openly available in digital form to read and reuse at no cost.

The Big Ten Open Books’ first collection brings to the reader a wide variety of materials in arts, humanities, and social science disciplines that are centered on gender and sexuality themes. The collection’s impact will be seen through its broad sharing of knowledge and high quality scholarship. Big Ten Open Books creates ebook collections that aspire to the highest standards of discoverability, accessibility, durability, and flexibility.

This work is aligned with the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s development of the BIG Collection's ambition of uniting the collections of the libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, and is supported by the Mellon Foundation's Public Knowledge program. The partner presses are Indiana University Press, Michigan State University Press, Northwestern University Press, Purdue University Press, University of Michigan Press, and University of Wisconsin Press.

The Big Ten Academic Alliance continues its advocacy for a sustainable and open ecosystem of publication. Collectively, BTAA institutions’ more than 50,000 faculty are supported by over $11 billion in research funding, and our institutions have invested significantly in our capacity to further the research mission by advancing public knowledge through open publishing. Together, the BTAA produces roughly 15% of the research publications in the United States.

Please direct any access questions to libcshelp@umd.edu.