Shared Print Projects

As part of our print management program, the Libraries participate in several shared print projects. Users wanting to access print materials held off campus can easily request these materials.

BTAA Shared Print Repository

The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) is a consortium of the Big Ten universities plus the University of Chicago. In July 2011, ten of the BTAA libraries launched the Shared Print Storage project which will centrally store back issues of Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer journal volumes for BTAA participating libraries. The first host site will be at Indiana University. Thus far, approximately 75,000 Elsevier journal titles have been relocated to Indiana, not including the 70,000 Elsevier titles they already owned which are now part of the project. This project allows participating libraries to withdraw their local print copies and rely collectively on the shared print copy (along with local electronic access). UW-Madison has already sent Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer titles, and as of October 2015, we also began sending IEEE titles to the SPR as part of the expansion of the project. Other libraries are currently sending from other publishers. A title-by-title list of journals potentially impacted by this strategy can be found here.

More information about the BTAA and this program is on their website.

University of Iowa/Iowa State/UW-Madison Distributed Print Repository

In 2009 the University of Iowa, Iowa State, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison partnered to create a Distributed Print Repository. Through this partnership, commonly held materials which had complete electronic duplication were identified. From those titles, one partner library has committed to retain a single copy of the print versions of the materials for a minimum of 25 years, which thereby enables the partner libraries to withdraw their copies and rely collectively on the shared repository copy (along with local electronic access).

Center for Research Libraries JSTOR Print Archive

The goal of CRL’s JSTOR print archive is to assemble a collection of JSTOR print volumes that match most of those in the JSTOR Arts & Sciences Collections. CRL has currently archived more than 80,000 volumes in its archive. Through the Library’s membership to CRL, University of Wisconsin-Madison patrons are able to request print volumes from CRL when they are not available on campus. More about the CRL JSTOR Print Archive can be found on the CRL website.