JSTOR will make a new 100-title open access book collection available as part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s latest open access initiative. Centered on Gender and Sexuality studies, this collection is the first in a series of collections from Big Ten Open Books, a collaboration between the university presses and libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

“Big Ten Open Books is pursuing a robust programmatic future for open monograph publishing by creating open content, on open infrastructure, using open distribution models,” said Maurice York, director of Library Initiatives at the Big Ten Academic Alliance. “JSTOR, one of our partners in this effort, has been working closely with the academic community to provide these essential services, helping realize our vision of making open scholarship reach millions of users.”

This collaboration is the latest in a series of programs JSTOR is undertaking with the academic community to make more content universally accessible. Earlier this year, JSTOR launched Path to Open, a new initiative with university presses and the American Council of Learned Societies that promises to make 1,000 new open access books available over the next four years. The Big Ten Academic Alliance is an early supporter of Path to Open, committing funds for the entire pilot period as part of their ongoing advocacy for a sustainable and open ecosystem for publication. More recently, JSTOR announced new infrastructure services to help libraries and other organizations share, preserve, and manage their open access and other digital collections.

“Our mission is to expand access to knowledge and education, and we do this by helping libraries and publishers implement affordable, sustainable, collaborative approaches to preserving and making content accessible and useful,” said John Lenahan, VP of Licensed Content. “We are excited to work with our colleagues at the Big Ten Academic Alliance on this and future efforts to support open access to scholarship for people all over the world.”

Learn more about open content and initiatives at JSTOR.