Registration is now open for the Big Ten Academic Alliance monthly series of keynotes, panels, and conversations centered on the BIG Collection. All staff from across BTAA libraries are warmly invited to this “Sequence of Convenings,” which will focus on generating broad community engagement with the vision, themes, and practical direction for the BIG Collection.
Convening the 2nd Monday of each month throughout 2021, the program will include large plenary sessions about the strategic themes of the BIG Collection, alternating with focused conversations about how we reimagine our work as a community to collectively design and build the future we want to see. You can register for as many sessions as you like, and registration will remain open and editable throughout the year. Selected content will be recorded and made available following each session.
The series launches on March 8th (10am CT / 11am ET) with “Envisioning the BIG Collection: Building a Knowledge Commons for the Big Ten” and an opening keynote from Maurice York, Director of Library Initiatives for BTAA. Panelists include the three library deans who sit on the BIG Collection Steering Committee.
Featured plenary sessions will include:
- April 12: “Collective Action and the Common Good: The Cornerstone of the Knowledge Commons” with Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Professor of English, Michigan State University)
- June 14: “Interdependence: The Pillars of the Knowledge Commons” with Greg Eow (President, Center for Research Libraries)
- September 13: “Open Knowledge: The Dome of the Knowledge Commons” with Evviva Weinraub (Vice Provost for Libraries, University at Buffalo)
- November 8: “Equity and Inclusion: The Light and Air of the Knowledge Commons”
Conversation sessions with your peers will include:
- May 10: Community Action in Practice: Networks of Trust in BTAA Library Initiatives
- July 12: Shared Services, Shared Infrastructure, & Shared Strategy: Coherence of Activity in BTAA Library Initiatives
- October 11: Open Content & Open Infrastructure: Alignment of Purpose in BTAA Library Initiatives
For further background reading on the BIG Collection, this recent article in Library Journal contains an excellent overview.
Register today for these sessions, and please share this announcement widely with colleagues at your library. All events are free, but registration is required. The hashtag for the sequence of events is #BIGconvenings.
