Month: August 2023

The University Library is pleased to be part of the launch of Big Ten Open Books, a collaboration between the member libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) and six member university presses. This project demonstrates and nurtures a robust partnership based on mutually held values between presses and libraries to address the future of scholarly monograph publishing, access, and preservation.

The first 100-title collection of open access materials, published on open access infrastructure and distributed through open discovery systems, centers on Gender and Sexuality studies.

“This is an exciting example of what’s possible when our Big Ten libraries and presses work together to design entirely new models for disseminating scholarship,” said Claire Stewart, Dean of Libraries and University Librarian at Illinois. “I’m optimistic that this strong start will lead to even more ambitious collaborations in the future. Vibrant university presses are an essential part of our shared knowledge creation mission, and I’m delighted that we’ve reached this key milestone.”

News release courtesy of the Big Ten Academic Alliance

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library has been selected to receive an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) FY2023 National Leadership Grants – Libraries award. This grant funds the “Libraries as Partners for Emergency Response and Preparedness in Times of Crisis” project. The Illinois Fire Service Institute and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in partnership with the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois and the School of Information Sciences at UIUC, will conduct a preliminary investigation into partnerships between libraries and community emergency response by focusing on three key areas: 1) types of emergencies that libraries have responded to in the past, 2) scope and nature of library-community partnerships; and 3) role of libraries during a crisis. The project will create case studies, survey libraries and community partners, and host two Community Engagement Roundtables (CERs) with library staff, community partners, and participants nationwide. Project results will provide a baseline understanding of how libraries can establish and maintain successful partnerships with community emergency response groups during crises.

For more information about the IFSI Library, visit fsi.illinois.edu/content/library.

The National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program (NLG-L) supports projects that address critical needs of the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance practice and strengthen library and archival services for the American public. For more information, visit imls.gov/grants/available/national-leadership-grants-libraries.