What would you do if you heard that there were 100 books in a collection relating to Native American history, culture and literature that you could download for free?
You might be delighted. Or would you think it’s a scam?
What if you also heard that the 100 books in the collection are books that were published by leading university presses at Big Ten-
affiliated universities, including more than a dozen published by the University of Minnesota Press?
That might make you curious enough to explore the Big Ten Open Book Indigenous North American collection that became available last summer at bigtenopenbooks.org.
The Big Ten Open Books project is an initiative of the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s Center for Library Programs.
Once you access the collection, you can scroll through all the e-book titles or find your way via an easy category sort that includes publisher, author or subjects such as Native American studies, biography, culture, history and much more.
Are you thinking it sounds too good to be true?
Nothing is perfect. You are going to find more classic titles rather than university presses’ current best sellers or books that are actively part of class curriculums.
Kate McCready, program director for open publishing of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, describes the books as “backlist”: useful, written by highly regarded authors, and sought out for point-of-need interest from a broad readership of scholars, government, public or anyone.
There is also a caveat: Books in the collection that were published years ago come with the notice “may include outdated representations of Indigenous culture and society.”
Eric Lundgren, University of Minnesota Press outreach and development manager, noted that during the process for this collection, he “consulted our editorial director, who is also our Indigenous Studies editor, to make sure that there were no significant issues with re-releasing these older titles in terms of cultural sensitivity or identity issues with the authors.”
Karen Diver, the U’s senior advisor to the president for Native American affairs, described the Big Ten list as a good one, adding that there are many good books out there.
“One I recommend to people lately is Ned Blackhawk’s “The Rediscovery of America.” As that book was published in 2023 by Yale University Press, it’s not part of the Big Ten Open Book collection.
The collection began with BTOB creating a list of possibilities and connecting with university presses. After that came a multitude of detailed administrative and technical steps including copyright, contracts, rights, resources, reformatting and author clearance. BTOB offers the assurance that “All of these steps in selecting and validating books in Big Ten Open Books mean that the collections deliver trusted information.”
“Our authors have been really excited about this initiative,” said Lundgren. “For authors, it’s a chance to breathe new life into an older work that may not be getting much attention anymore.”
Kathy Henderson is a regular freelance writer for the Bugle.
