The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) announced a landmark deal with AM (formerly Adam Matthew) in December of 2022. Students, researchers, and scholars at these15 leading research institutions in the United States will now have access to millions of pages of essential primary source content from the entire AM core collections portfolio. The primary resources represent collections held in museums, libraries, and government archives from all over the world.
For the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, this agreement gives Nebraska students and faculty access to 69 new databases covering diverse disciplines including: U.S. and global history, literature, culture, economics, political science, ethnomusicology, advertising, and government documents. They contain full-text materials including: diaries, government documents, personal accounts and correspondence, ships logs, newspapers, photographs, and many other types of primary documents.
“These additional databases are valued at $6 million dollars’ worth of primary documents and papers, and Nebraska’s contribution, courtesy of our membership in BTAA was $72,000,” stated Claire Stewart, dean of Libraries on the 90% discount price and one-time payment for access to these databases.
Working closely with BTAA and the framework of their strategic Big Collection initiative, AM has rolled out its Impact purchase model across the entire group. The ability to draw on this breadth of content in a united way across the BTAA membership will create opportunities for inter-institution research and collaborative projects at an unprecedented scale, while at the same time allowing individual members to focus on their own local academic strengths.
According to Charlene Maxey-Harris, associate dean of libraries, this addition expands our support of area studies with titles such as: Apartheid South Africa, 1948-1980; Central Asia, Persia, & Afghanistan, 1834-1922; and China, America and the Pacific, to name just a few.
“The significance is the diversity in the types of collections and along with geographic diversity with materials and entire collections about countries such as South Africa, China, and areas of Southeast Asia,” explains Maxey-Harris.
Maurice York, Director, Library Initiatives at the Big Ten Academic Alliance, stated, "We’re excited about this outstanding prospect for our member universities and for this deepening of an already long and highly productive partnership. We are very pleased with this compelling opportunity to unlock high quality content of great value to faculty and students across our consortium."
Khal Rudin, Executive Chair at AM and Senior Vice President at SAGE Publishing, said "The BTAA’s objective to optimize student and faculty access to content aligns closely with AM’s vision to place primary sources at the heart of education. Providing this vast amount of AM content to the entire BTAA community offers exciting new teaching and research opportunities for generations to come."
AM’s digital collections and technology platforms enrich the study, research, and teaching of primary sources. AM works with libraries, archives, and heritage institutions to digitize the world’s historical and cultural knowledge. With AM, customers can discover award-winning archival collections, learn how to use them, or create their own.
The databases have been added to the Libraries catalog or explore the entire list of 69 new databases of primary materials in this Libguide.