BTAA libraries commit to making knowledge more open and equitable and will enjoy benefits exclusive to participating libraries.
Today, the MIT Press and the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) announced a three-year collective action agreement that provides Direct to Open (D2O) access for all fifteen 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.
Developed over two years with the generous support of the Arcadia Fund, D2O gives institutions the opportunity to harness collective action to support access to knowledge. As participating libraries, the Big Ten members will help open access to all new MIT Press scholarly monographs and edited collections from 2022. In addition, the member libraries will gain term access to an archive of gated titles, including classic works from Rosalind Krauss, Daniel Dennett, Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman, Sherry Turkle, and many more. D2O libraries also gain the benefit of discounting on the MIT Press’s trade books collection on the MIT Press Direct platform.
“The MIT Press Direct to Open model advances the goals of the Big Ten Academic Alliance by supporting a sustainable path for open access scholarship,” states Rob Van Rennes, Associate Director, Library Initiatives for the BTAA. “We’re excited to be a partner in this community effort to build an equitable and sustainable ecosystem for our member institutions as well as the wider academic community.”
The Big Ten Academic Alliance members are: Indiana University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Chicago. If D2O does not reach the success threshold for 2022, Big Ten libraries are assured this term access without paying the fee.
“We are thrilled to have the support of BTAA in our mission to make scholarly monographs and edited collections available as widely and openly as possible,” says MIT Press director Amy Brand. “Their sponsorship will go a long way in helping to ensure the success of the D2O model. D2O will also guarantee that any author, regardless of their ability to source funding, is able to publish their accepted monograph open access with the MIT Press.”
About the Big Ten Academic Alliance
The Big Ten Academic Alliance is the nation’s preeminent model for effective collaboration among research universities. For more than half a century, these world-class institutions 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. Governed and funded by the Provosts of the member universities, Big Ten Academic Alliance mandates are coordinated by a staff from its Champaign, Illinois headquarters.
