The ARL Visiting Program Officer (VPO) program provides an opportunity for a staff member in an ARL member library to assume responsibility for conducting part or all of a project for ARL. The program provides a highly visible professional development opportunity for an outstanding staff member and serves the ARL membership as a whole by extending the capacity of ARL to undertake additional activities.

Typically, the member library supports the salary of the staff person and ARL supports or seeks grant funding for travel or other project-related expenses. Depending on the nature of the project and the circumstances of the individual, a VPO may spend extended periods of time in Washington, DC, or may conduct most of the project from her/his home library. In either case, contact with ARL staff and a presence in the ARL office is encouraged as this has proved to be mutually beneficial for the VPO and for ARL.

The ARL Strategic Directions reflect the scope of ARL's current agenda and suggest the range of issues where a Visiting Program Officer project could make a contribution. Individuals who wish to propose a project they could advance for ARL, or those who wish to nominate a librarian to serve as a VPO, may contact Jaia Barrett, Deputy Executive Director. Each appointment has its own time frame and will be dependent on securing support from the potential VPO's home library and identifying the financial resources needed to undertake the assignment.

Current VPOs

• Trisha L. Davis, Ohio State University, and Diane Grover, University of Washington, are refining and extending the benefits of a pilot workshop on analyzing and mapping license terms for use in electronic resource management (ERM) systems.


• Steve Hiller, University of Washington, and Jim Self, University of Virginia, are leading a service to help libraries develop sustainable assessment efforts that demonstrate their contributions to teaching, learning and research.


• Lars Meyer, Emory University, is assessing the state of preservation programs in ARL libraries.


• Neil Rambo, University of Washington, is pursuing ARL's agenda regarding library support for research and e-science.


• Michael Rush, Yale University, is working with the ARL Special Collections Working Group to promote collaborative integration and enduring access to comprehensive research collections and resources in all formats that could be used to advance research, teaching, and learning.

Former VPOs